Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan in the Chunin Exam
by FilipN1
Summary: Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan have the ambition to defend and protect their home, the Hidden Rain Village. Their goal is to become the guiding force that ends the war in their Village. However, they wish to do so as real ninja. Trained only as war orphans they possess no official title or rank. They aim to pass the exam and become true Shinobi of the Rain.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan sat on a couch together just outside the office of the Leaf village's Hokage. Konan folded a piece of paper, fashioning the paper into an origami creation. Each fold in the paper was meticulously performed.  
Origami is the art of giving life to paper.  
Thus, Konan treated the paper as if it was an infant. She was soft of touch, caring, every fold and pleat done with absolute purpose.  
No mistakes.  
While Konan was preoccupied with her work. Nagato and Yahiko looked around the hallway curiously. Whenever a Leaf Shinobi walked past them they gave the three younglings a cautious look.  
Nagato drew the most attention because of his unusual eyes. The rippling pattern of the Rinnegan made him stick out like a sore thumb, something that he had gotten somewhat used too.  
While they were in a foreign village they would be on their best behaviour, especially since their Sensei was kind enough to take them back to his home.  
The three Rain orphans loved their village, despite the state of warfare and destruction it was in. They couldn't and wouldn't abandon their home, however, for the time being, Jiraiya had believed it best to take his three students back to his village. The plan was to train them up a bit more and when they were finally ready, allow them to go back home to liberate and save the Rain village.  
Jiraiya was adamant that Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan become official ninja with rank before returning them to the Rain. Jiraiya had taught them more than the basics of ninja tactics. Including Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu as well as how to wield ninja weapons and formulate strategies. The three orphans were also no stranger to battle. War and death had become part of their daily lives until recently.  
Now it was time for a fresh start.

"What do you think they're talking about in there?" Yahiko asked impatiently. He was hugging one of his knees to his chest and resting his chin on top.

"I guess his asking the Hokage if it will be ok for us to participate," Nagato replied.

"The Hokage better agree, I am pumped up for this. I can't wait to show people what I can do."

"You know it's not that easy. For starters, we're technically not ninja. We haven't got an official rank, no ninja registration, we haven't even got headbands."

"Big deal, we think and fight like ninja, that should be enough."

"I know how you feel. We may not be official, but I feel like we've been ninja every since we asked Jiraiya sensei to train us. I hope he can put in a good word for us to join in the Chunin exams. After all, this was sensei's idea and at the end of the day his doing this for us, so that we can grow and reach our full potential."

Yahiko turned to his red-haired friend and grinned childishly. With that one smile, Nagato knew that Yahiko had just agreed to everything he had just said. Nagato grinned back, then he prayed silently that Jiraiya would be able to come through for them.

* * *

"Why are you hesitating to give me an answer?" Jiraiya interrogated the 3rd Hokage in his office.

"It's not that simple Jiraiya, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration before I can approve this." The 3rd Hokage retorted.

"This was my idea, but I'm not forcing them into anything they don't want to do. All three agreed to do this for their own sake. Do you really think I'm putting them up to this against their will?"

The 3rd Hokage remained calm. His expression serene. In complete contrast to Jiraiya's unease and rising annoyance.

"I don't doubt their eagerness. Nor am I doubting their skill. Since you're their sensei I'm sure you worked with them thoroughly and taught them all they needed to know."

"Then what's the problem?"

"There are still many facets that need to be looked over. What if they're underprepared? While I don't distrust your teaching methods, your students will be going up against Genin who have been trained in the ninja arts for a lot longer than them. Your students lack the official training and techniques that the other Genin will possess. That could put them at a great disadvantage." Hiruzen explained.

Jiraiya shook his head a couple of times. "I've taught them the basics, they already know everything they need to know. Also, Nagato, the boy with the Rinnegan, he's a fast learner."

Jiraiya was about to continue but before he could get a word out his mentor raised a hand to _shush _him.

"Contrarily, I have to consider that they may be over-prepared," The 3rd Hokage went on, seemingly ignoring his student.

"Over prepared!?" Jiraiya called out incredulously.

"The Chunin exam is designed to test a vast array of different ninja capabilities and techniques through rigorous exercises that are based on simulations of warfare. However, if what you claim about your students are correct then they have already experienced true warfare and actual combat. They have had to kill to survive every day. The Genin from the other villages will have all participated in D- Rank Missions and sparingly some C- Rank Missions. Again, if I am to believe your statements about your endeavours in the Rain village, your students have participated in battles that should technically be considered B- ranked perhaps even higher. It would be unfair."

"They were with me the whole time there was any real danger. I didn't let them fight on their own. Besides, you did the same thing. You fought in wars when you were younger than them."

"That was life and death Jiraiya! A different time. While the exams are dangerous in their own right, I have to make a decision that is fair on all Genin. I'm also taking into account their mental state. What if during the second exam inside the Forest of Death the skirmishes between Genin become too real for them? What happens when it becomes too much, digs out buried emotions and experiences? They might think they're trapped in another war. Yes, there have been deaths during the exams before, but what if your students misunderstand the position they're in and decide to kill anyone they see thinking their all enemies. I don't wish to place the Leaf's Genin at risk. I won't allow _our_ Chunin exams to turn into the butchery of the Mist village's Chunin exams."

Jiraiya knew his students better than anyone. They were ready, he knew it. On top of that they were kind and gentle souls. They hadn't let the hatred of war turn them into monsters. They're not seeking fame or glory in the exams, they don't wish for vengeance.  
All they wanted was to defend their home. Their village. Each other. Just like any ninja would.  
The same way that Jiraiya felt.  
And the same way the 3rd Hokage felt.  
That was the ideal that Jiraiya had to appeal to.

"Sarutobi sensei, these kids might have grown up in a war zone but their still kids. I didn't teach them to kill. I taught them to defend themselves. They're aware of the difference. All they want is to the right to defend and protect their village as proper shinobi just like every other Genin who will be participating in these exams. At least meet them first, let them show you why they want to become ninja and then decide what to do from there. You're the Hokage, so screw the 'They're not official ninja' crap. You would do everything and anything to protect this village. So please don't deny these kids the right to do the same." Jiraiya made his final argument.

The 3rd Hokage sighed heavily and looked down in contemplation. He laced his fingers together.

"I can't remember the last time you fought for something so passionately that didn't involve your 'Research'. So be it, we will see if they should be allowed to participate in the Chunin exams. We are going to put them up to the test." The 3rd Hokage explained.  
Jiraiya eyed his sensei sheepishly.

"What do you mean we?"

* * *

Nagato and Yahiko had wandered around the hallway, they were looking at a large oaken wall that had the symbols belonging to every clan in the Leaf village engraved onto it.

"That's a lotta' clans," Yahiko stated. Nagato found himself staring at a symbol that was a circle with a spiral-like pattern inside. He was sure he didn't know it. Yet, there was something familiar about, something comforting. He felt at home as he was looking at it. Yahiko was looking at a symbol that looked like a fan with a semi-circle on top.

"The famous Uchiha clan. I've heard they're super strong. Sensei talked them up as well. It would be awesome to meet one of them."

"Well if everything goes well today, we might have to fight some of them in the Chunin exam." The two friends walked back to the couch where Konan was still engaged in her origami. The folding of the paper now became more intricate as she worked delicately to create her art piece.  
Just as Nagato and Yahiko sat back down on the couch, Yahiko saw Jiraiya from the corner of his eye.

"Guy's here he comes," Yahiko whispered to his friends. For the first time in a long while, Konan removed her attention from her origami piece. Jiraiya stood in front of his pupils. "Good news?" Yahiko questioned.

"I've done everything I can on my side, now it's all up to you guys," Jiraiya replied.

"What does that mean?" Nagato asked.

"You'll find out soon enough. Alright, follow me," Jiraiya ordered.

* * *

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan followed their sensei to a training ground. They stood on the lush green, soft grass. To the side of them, three wooden posts jutted up from the ground. On the other side, a shallow river cut across the field. Crystal clear water rushed downstream, reflecting light off the surface covering the water in tiny stars that sparkled brightly.  
Nagato noticed the Hokage standing near the wooden stumps.

"Sensei, why is the Hokage here?" Nagato asked.

"He's here to observe the match. Based on your performance he'll make the decision on whether you'll be allowed to participate in the Chunin exams. Don't let him intimidate you, pretend like he's not here," Jiraiya answered.

"Match! What match?" Yahiko sounded surprised. The three students heard the sound of a ringing. Jiraiya pulled out two bells and dangled them in front of his students. The bells chimed as they swung.

"In the Leaf village, we have a traditional exercise that determines whether academy students are allowed to progress and become Genin. We call it the Bell test. Your job is to take the bells away from me by any means necessary."

The three kids gulped nervously at the prospect of fighting their sensei. However, Yahiko quickly pushed that thought aside and began to revel at the chance to challenge his sensei to battle.

"No problem sensei, we'll grab those bells from you ya' know. We're going to pass this test. So, whenever you're ready to make a Shadow Clone we can start." Yahiko declared while he punched his open palm.

"Oh no!" Jiraiya exclaimed smiling. "No Shadow Clones like last time. This time your fighting against the real me. Also, I'll repeat the same thing I told you guys the last time we trained. You have to come at me with the intent to kill or else you'll never get these bells."

Throughout all the past training with Jiraiya. Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan would always fight against the Sannin's Shadow Clones, they had never fought against the real thing. The idea shocked the three kids up a little bit. But, they knew why they were here. They were determined to become ninja and prove themselves worthy of joining the Chunin exams. They wanted to liberate the Rain village as true Shinobi.  
They would do anything to succeed in this mission.  
They were prepared to fight.

"We're ready Jiraiya sensei," Nagato declared confidently.

"Yeah, get ready," Yahiko said.

"We won't hold back," Konan said.

"Good." Jiraiya attached the strings on the bells to his belt. "On the count of three, ready!" The kids nodded in unison. "1…2…3… Begin!"

* * *

Nagato raised one of his hands and concentrated on the two bells.

"**Bansho Ten'in!**" Nagato called.

The two bells ripped themselves away from Jiraiya's belt. Flying straight towards Nagato's open palm.

"Nice work, buddy," Yahiko cheered. Jiraiya's mouth twisted into a disappointed frown.

"Please don't tell me that's how you plan on succeeding?" Jiraiya called out. Jiraiya formed the snake hand-sign. "**Kebari Senbon!**" The Sage's hair ruffled, then began shooting out needle-like strands of hair. The Jutsu was quicker than the bells and found its target's sooner. The three students leaped out of the way of the sharp hair that pierced the ground. Jiraiya moved swiftly forwards and plucked the two bells out of mid-air. "Nice try." Jiraiya attached the bells back onto his belt. "Remember, this is a test to prove you're worthiness of becoming ninja. Pulling something easily towards yourself like that won't show off your skills."

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan regrouped.

"Sensei is right," Konan said. "We have to get those bells with proper tactics."

"Ok," Nagato replied.

Nagato and Konan started running to the left of their sensei while Yahiko made his way to the right.

The Third Hokage stood off to the side. Watching the exercise intensely. Making mental notes of what he witnessed.  
_When facing a stronger opponent as a group it's wise to attack from split directions to draw attention towards two places simultaneously. That was a good call._

"**Water Style: Water Pillar!**" Yahiko shouted. Three vertical beams of water shot out of the ground. One in front of Jiraiya, one behind and one on his right. Seeing his two other students coming from the other side, Jiraiya took off to escape between the pillars, but they moved and circled around and blocked his path. He stopped running and grinned.  
Konan waved both hands, sending sheets of paper flying into the air.

"**Paper Shuriken!**" The paper sheets began folding themselves quickly and neatly. The paper sheets overlapped themselves until they all formed shuriken. The stars were sent flying at Jiraiya.

"**Wind Style: Gale Palm!**" Nagato cried. He clapped his hands together sending a shockwave of wind that pushed the paper shuriken, making them fly quicker and more violently. Nagato pushed most of the shuriken towards Jiraiya's body, however, one stray shuriken veered off course and was aimed at the string of the bells that connected to the belt. The hope was to cut the string and get the bells to drop.

"This is more like it," Jiraiya said, a grin spread across his face from ear to ear. He formed the snake hand-sign again. "**Art of the Raging Lion's Mane!**" Jiraiya's hair pressed tightly together and the tip curved into a lion's jaw. The mane of white hair charged at Yahiko smashing through the water pillar with ease. The remaining two water pillar's broke down and fell.  
Yahiko jumped back.  
The Lion's mane took a bite out of the ground and gripped the earth with its jaws. The hair then yanked Jiraiya back with force, pulling him away from the spinning shuriken.  
All shuriken stabbed the ground.  
Jiraiya landed on the ground again and skidded to a stop, his hair returned to normal.  
Yahiko rushed his sensei from behind. Swinging a fist straight at him.  
At the same time, Nagato pulled a kunai from his pouch and launched it at his sensei's back. Jiraiya caught Yahiko's fist nonchalantly and pulled him in front of his body. The Sannin, still holding onto his students' fist, spun Yahiko around and wrapped his forearm around the boy's throat.  
Jiraiya had turned Yahiko into a human shield. Nagato's kunai coming right at him.

"Heeeelp!" Yahiko cried.

Nagato gritted his teeth.

"**Bansho Ten'in!**" The kunai stopped in mid-air for a split second, then began flying backwards, returning to Nagato's hand.  
Yahiko breathed a sigh of relief.  
Jiraiya started hearing a _sizzling _sound. Looking at the earth around him. Patches of grass started to rise up from the ground, like a snake beginning to attack. The grass started to disappear, it was seemingly being absorbed by something. After a couple of seconds, the rectangular grass patches turned completely white.  
The floor surrounding Jiraiya was covered in paper.  
Not just ordinary paper. Paper bombs.  
Jiraiya's face twisted in horror. The sensei released his student in a hurry and threw him towards his friends. He then swiftly formed some hand-signs and slammed one of his Geta sandals on the ground.

"**Earth Style: Dark Swamp!**"

The ground around him immediately turned into murky, mushy mud. Submerging the paper bombs under the thick mud, they let out a high-pitched squeal. Mud bubbles popped harmlessly, releasing wisps of smoke that rose into the air. Luckily the mud had soaked and diffused the bombs before they could go off.  
"That was close," The Sannin whispered under his breath. His facial expression dropped to complete bewilderment.  
_Yahiko summons some water. Nagato creates a gust of wind. Yet, the kindest and most gentle one decides to blow me up with dozens of bombs.  
_Jiraiya thought to himself.

"Konan! You could have given me the heads up ya' know," Yahiko called out.  
Konan extended a hand and helped Yahiko off the ground. He dusted himself off.

The Third Hokage had seen how the three pupils failed to get the bells, but he would be lying to himself if he didn't think that what he saw was impressive.  
_The water pillars were used to keep Jiraiya in place, stopping him from escaping. Then there was the wind Jutsu that helped increase the power and rotation of the shuriken. They combine their Jutsu well.  
Speaking of the shuriken. This girl, Konan, she manipulates paper and enhances it with her chakra. She even applied the transformation Jutsu to the paper and blended it in with the surrounding grass. I've never seen a Jutsu like that before. Give that girl some preparation time and there's no telling what kind of traps she could lay. It makes sense why these three have survived for so long living inside a war zone.  
You did a good job training them Jiraiya._

"By the way," Shouted Jiraiya. "The one who doesn't get a bell will be tied to that post."

"Like hell," Yahiko argued.

"Let's go," Nagato said.

They began moving.

"**Paper Shuriken!**" Konan shouted. Releasing more paper, they folded into shuriken and launched themselves at Jiraiya. At the last second, the paper shuriken unfolded themselves into ordinary rectangles and instantly started moving sporadically. Dozen upon dozens of paper sheets flew wildly around Jiraiya. There was a huge flurry of white moving around.  
A distraction.

"**Fireball Jutsu!**" Jiraiya breathed out a stream of fire and burned the paper to ashes. Then he breathed a second large fireball at the trio.

"**Preta Path!**" Nagato raised his hand and caught the fireball. Like a vacuum, the fire was being sucked into the palm of the Rinnegan boy. The fireball was becoming smaller and smaller until it vanished completely.  
Yahiko was able to get to Jiraiya. Swinging his fists wildly, Jiraiya evaded them all. Yahiko performed a spin kick. His sensei grabbed his foot and tossed him somewhere behind. Nagato and Konan attacked simultaneously. Nagato trying to reach for a bell. Konan attempting a right-side punch to the face.  
Jiraiya caught both of their wrists, made a spin and threw them away. Nagato landed and raised an arm at his sensei.

"**Bansho Ten'in!**"

"What did I say about using that Jutsu?" Jiraiya questioned.

Nagato smirked. "Who said it was for you?"

Yahiko, who had been thrown behind Jiraiya, was suspended in the air for a second before being recalled by his friends Jutsu and pulled back towards his sensei.

"Got you now," screamed Yahiko.

Jiraiya made the snake hand-sign and forced his hair to cover his entire body like a blanket. Yahiko hugged his sensei.

"If you wanted a hug all you had to do was ask," Jiraiya said mockingly.

Yahiko let his sensei go and started bouncing up and down screaming in pain. White needles of hair stuck out of the boy's hands and face.

"Ow, ow ow!"

"You're lucky I softened my hair."

Yahiko pursed his lips and raised the pitch of his voice and mockingly mimicked Jiraiya's sentence. "_You're lucky I softened my hair._" Yahiko removed all the pricks from his body. Jiraiya's hair returned to normal.

"Alright, I think it's time for a little rest if you guys don't mind," Jiraiya said.

"Excuse me!?" Yahiko said incredulously

Jiraiya bit his thumb, formed some hand-signs and slammed his palm to the ground. A seal appeared on the ground, then a burst of white smoke covered the Sannin. When the fog cleared, the Toad Sage was sitting crossed-legged on a toad.  
Gama, a large orange skinned toad covered in dark blue markings was croaking innocently. Large prayer beads decorated his neck.

"You want to get to me, you go through him," Jiraiya said, smirking.

The Third Hokage was still watching intensely.  
_Excellent! We've seen how well they do against a strong foe. Now, let's see how well they do against a fast foe._

Yahiko leaped at the toad. Gama jumped away, mud and grass pushed up out of the ground. Yahiko face-palmed the dirt. The toad's legs possessed ridiculous power. One jump and it covered the whole area of the training field. Nagato and Konan stood watching the toad hop around in awe for a couple of seconds. Nagato knit his eyes together as his concentration returned. He formed hand signs.

"**Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!**" Nagato roared.

Several balls of flames shot out of the boy's mouth. The flaming orbs targeting the Sannin did not find their mark. Gama weaved through the fireballs. Twisting its body this way and that, dragging its legs through the lush grass. Gama moved like a leaf trapped in a violent wind. Unpredictable and malleable.  
Konan followed her partners attack.  
She charged at her sensei.

Konan had discovered during the earlier instances of her training. That battle and origami were not so dissimilar. In origami, you had to know what you were attempting to create before you could begin folding. Just like you have to know what outcome you want in a battle before you attack.  
Paper represents the battle. Every action made and Jutsu cast represents the foldings.  
That's how Konan fought. Planning her moves ahead, always. Looking forwards, deep into the folds and bends of war. Making sure there was no mistake. After living inside the war of the Rain village there was no mistakes allowed because that would lead to death.

"**Paper Spear!**" Called out Konan. Sheets of paper flew out of her sleeve and folded themselves into a long, sharp point.  
The toad opened its mouth and extended its tongue towards the girl. The tongue lashed out with striking speed. Konan focused her chakra into her feet and leaped upwards. The chakra boost to her feet got her off the ground quicker than normal. Gama's tongue ploughed into the dirt. Konan, in the air, threw her paper spear right at her sensei's belt, aiming for the bells. The toads tongue retracted instantly. Then extended once more, this time wrapping around the spear's middle. Gama flung the spear back at Konan.

"Don't worry about it, Konan!" Nagato called out. "**Shinra Tensei!**"

A force-field appeared around Konan. The paper spear rebounded off the Jutsu and spun away.

"**Paper Shuriken!**" The spear peeled itself back into dozens of sheets of paper. The paper sheets then folded themselves into shuriken and spun violently at Jiraiya. Gama, using its powerful legs, jumped back avoiding the barrage of shuriken.

_That was smart. _The Third Hokage thought. _She used the same paper from her first Jutsu to cut down the time needed for the activation of her second Jutsu. She didn't waste time summoning more paper, forcing Jiraiya to back away._

Yahiko regrouped with his friends. The three kids began whispering to each other, coming up with a plan of attack.

"That's enough!" Hiruzen's voice cut through the concentration of Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. They turned their heads around. Jiraiya looked up as well.

"Time for you to go, Gama," Jiraiya said thankfully. "Thanks for the help." Gama made a loud _ribbit _as Jiraiya patted the top of his summons head. Gama vanished in a puff of smoke. Jiraiya landed softly on the ground.  
Jiraiya and his three students gathered around the Hokage. Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan were panting deeply. Sweat had covered the three young ninja.  
Hiruzen smoked from his pipe peacefully. Smoke pouring from his mouth into the open air. The 3rd Hokage looked at Yahiko briefly and an image of a young Jiraiya flashed into his mind. Hiruzen smiled to himself.

"When Jiraiya first came to me with the idea of letting you three join the Chunin exam, I was sceptical. I was worried about your circumstances and how that would affect your participation throughout the exam. However, despite all that I've witnessed and all my knowledge, it's good to know that there are still things that even I can get wrong." Hiruzen looked cheekily at the three wooden stumps poking from out the ground. "When Jiraiya was your age, he took the same test as you. The only difference is that after the test was completed, I had him strapped to that post." The three kids grinned widely. Jiraiya blushed and cast his gaze to the blue sky. "It would be my honour as Hokage to allow the three of you to participate in the Chunin exam as Genin of the Hidden Rain Village." The 3rd Hokage said. It took a second for the young ninja to realise what the leaf's leader had said. Then finally…

"YES!" Yahiko threw his arms up in triumph. "Yoohoo, we did it. Chunin exams here we come."

Nagato and Konan both heaved out a sigh of relief. Then they hugged each other with smiles on their faces. Yahiko embraced them both, his grin wide, reaching from ear to ear. The hugging ended and they turned back to the Hokage.

"We passed," Konan said. "But we didn't get bells from Jiraiya sensei?"

"The attempt at getting the bells is the real test. To see how well you react to different situations. You all did wonderfully. You're also all ready Genin level, that much is obvious after having just watched you. There is still much to learn, however. Yet, Jiraiya has done a great job at training you," The 3rd Hokage explained.

The new Genin bowed respectfully at the Hokage.

"Thank you," They all said in unison.

"Although, if it is the bells you want…" The Third Hokage vanished instantly from sight. The kids gasped at the sudden disappearance of the Hokage. "Here." The sound of bells rung behind the newly appointed Genin. As they turned around, they saw the Third Hokage dangling two bells in his hands. Jiraiya, watching his sensei, dropped his jaw. He patted his belt down trying to feel the bells.

"When…?" Jiraiya gasped.

Hiruzen chuckled heartily and threw the two bells. Nagato caught one and Konan the other. Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko burst out laughing once more. Jiraiya patted the back of his head, grinning happily. His three students charged once again at him. Only this time, they embraced him.  
Jiraiya was so proud of his students, it was a new feeling for him. But he accepted it. He hugged his students back.

* * *

**A/N**

**Hey everyone.  
**

**I just wanted to explain somethings about Nagato throughout this fanfic. Seeing as this is set when Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan are Genin, I didn't want to make them overpowered as we know Nagato is. I feel like it's easier for Yahiko because we don't know much about Yahiko's skills outside of the Deva path. Konan's abilities are also pretty basic in this story, but her Jutsu will develop.  
As for Nagato, I restricted a lot of what he can do, just so he doesn't breeze through everything quickly. Out of the Rinnegan abilities, he can use Shinra Tensei and Bansho Ten'in which you may have already seen in this chapter. He also has the Preta Path power to absorb Jutsu.  
So no Animal Path, Human Path, Asura Path, Naraka Path. He might gain these abilities as the story progresses, but it will be later on.  
In terms of Elemental Jutsu, Nagato can use all basic 5 chakra natures. He only has around 1-3 Jutsu for each element. Again this might change later on.  
On a side note, I like using English names for the Jutsu because I'm no expert in the Japanese names. Also, I think it's easier to understand for readers. Except, I wanted to use Shinra Tensei and Bansho Ten'in for his push and pull abilities cause their such cool names. **

**Hope you enjoy the story :D  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan sat inside Jiraiya's apartment. Konan was sitting on the floor folding red coloured paper into a rose. Nagato and Yahiko were challenging each other in a game of Shogi. Yahiko had lost more than half his pieces, yet he was still trash-talking his friend as if he was winning.  
It was Yahiko's turn. He was rubbing his chin and his eyes were narrowed. He had a look of intense concentration on his face. His tongue was poking out his mouth.  
Last night, the trio were shouted to dinner by their sensei. They ate grilled meat and laughed and enjoyed their night. Jiraiya had celebrated more than his students and ended up getting a little more than drunk. Yahiko and Nagato had to carry their sensei home.  
Jiraiya had left in the morning, he told his students that he was going to get some medicine for his hungover. The Rain Genin were waiting for their teacher to return. Yahiko finished ruminating and moved one of his Shogi pieces forward. Without thinking Nagato instantly moved his own piece and stole Yahiko's piece that he just moved. Yahiko groaned then went back into his thinking face.  
Nagato had time to process what an achievement he and his friends had made yesterday. It may have only been one step, but it was one step further to their true goal. He was happy and excited. Ready to move further into his journey of becoming a ninja. However, he wouldn't lie, he was also quite nervous. In a foreign land, surrounded by foreign people after being alone with Yahiko and Konan for a long time. Going into an exam that he had no idea what to expect. He allowed doubt to creep into his mind. He thought of all the other kids back in the Rain Village who could have been in their position. Sitting in a comfy room playing Shogi. Instead of lying in the freezing rain, no water or food.  
But that was why he was here, why they were all here. Once they had become fully-fledged ninja, they could go home and make things right.

"Argh, I give up," Yahiko said, frustrated. Nagato smiled.

A knock at the door drew the attention of the kids. The knock was delivered in a specific pattern. Nagato, Yahiko and Konan knew the pattern straight away. Back when they lived and trained in the Rain Village, Jiraiya had come up with a secret door knock so that his students knew that it was him at the door. There was no need for secret knocks now, but Jiraiya thought it couldn't help to bring back the memory. Konan stopped her origami and opened the door, letting her sensei in.  
Jiraiya walked into his apartment, with a big smile on his face. He held a large white bag in his hand. He shut the door quickly.

"Alright, everyone, gather around the table," Jiraiya asked.

Konan took a seat next to her friends.

"After yesterday's victory during your bell test, I thought of getting you gifts." The three students' eyes lit up with excitement.

"Dinner and gifts, I'm lovin' this," Yahiko said.

"Konan, you first," Jiraiya declared. The Sannin popped his hand into the bag and drew out a small book. He handed it to the girl.  
Konan looked at the book strangely. Turning it over inspecting the back and front.

"She rose up from the water," Konan began reading. "Steam rising into the air from the water's surface. Water droplets dripping down her pale, sleek skin." Konan's face crumpled into disgust and her eyes started to burn with anger. "Her body rose up and up until finally, water cascaded down her large brea…!" Jiraiya snapped the book right out of Konan's hands. Konan's glare was burning through her sensei, if looks could kill, Konan would have killed the legendary Sannin ten times over.

"Sorry, that was for my personal research. I must have put it in the bag and forgotten to take it out." Jiraiya placed the notepad into his own pouch. Reaching inside the bag a second time, he pulled out another book. Konan took it hesitantly. Glancing over the cover, her eyes shot wide and her mouth pulled tight into a smile.

"1000 Origami designs," Konan's voice peaked to a high pitch. "Thank you so much Sensei!"

"I knew you would love it." Konan opened the book straight away and started flicking through the pages. "Next up, Yahiko." The orange-haired boy could barely keep his excitement. His shoulders bounced rapidly, enthusiasm taking control of his body. "Move away from the table," Jiraiya asked. Yahiko practically ran away from the table. "Do me a favour and treat them with care." Jiraiya ruffled his hand once more into the large bag. Removing his hand from the bag, Jiraiya was holding a pair of Katana.  
It felt like someone had lit firecrackers under Yahiko's feet. He jumped around cheering and yoohooing. Stamping his feet with an inextinguishable enthusiasm. His hands wailing in the air.

"Ok, ok, calm down," Jiraiya said, laughing. Yahiko took the blades from his sensei. He looked them over in total bewilderment like they weren't real. Yahiko leaned one katana on the table and held the other. He carefully drew the steel blade. His excitement rose as he exposed the blade naked. The blade was clean and sharp, the boy saw his reflection in the steel. The hilt wrapping was dark blue. The guard was silver, shaped into a raindrop. The scabbard was navy blue. Both katanas shared the same look.  
Yahiko swung the sword around a couple of times.  
The sword hissed through the air.  
It moved cleanly as if the very air parted way to allow the blade to swing unimpeded.

"This is the best gift ever, old man," Yahiko said.

"Old man, huh? Where is the respect?" Jiraiya replied. Yahiko chuckled some more before sheathing the blade.

"Finally," Jiraiya continued. "Nagato." The Sannin handed his student a small black box. Nagato took hold of it. He opened it. Inside was a pendant, shaped into a rain droplet. It was made from a blue gemstone. As the boy investigated the stone, he saw a ripple course inside the stone. Like there was a storm of crashing waves trapped inside.

"Give it some chakra," Jiraiya hinted.

Nagato looked at his sensei for a second then did as he was told. The chakra from his hand leaked into the cold stone. The tides inside shifted and he saw an image start to form. Nagato looked up in shock.  
It was an image of the Rain orphans. Nagato saw himself, smiling happily along with Yahiko and Konan on his sides. His friends wearing the same goofy expression.

"How?" Nagato asked.

"It responds to your feelings, you give it some of your chakra and it shows you what you want to see. Very difficult to get your hands on one of them."

"This must have cost a fortune, are sure you want me to have it?" Nagato asked.

"Of course, and don't worry about the price, that's my concern," Jiraiya assured his student.

"Here," Yahiko said. The orange-haired boy took the necklace and wrapped it around his friends' neck, tying the string up at the back.  
Nagato had a flashback to his conversation with Jiraiya back in the Rain Village.  
All I want is to protect those two, no matter what kind of pain I may be forced to endure.  
The gift was perfect.  
It wasn't knowledge like Konan's. Or a weapon like Yahiko's.  
It was resolve. Reminding him why they were here. What they had to do.  
Jiraiya cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention.

"I'm not done yet," Jiraiya said. "Those gifts were a personal touch, to get you motivated for the exam. However, these are more of a necessity." Jiraiya brought out three black boxes stacked on top of each other. "Take one each."

The three kids did so. Then they opened them up. Inside was multiple ninja tools.  
In the top left corner was two rows of neatly lined up shuriken. There was 10 in each row. Below the shuriken, in the bottom left corner was a row of kunai knives. One kunai facing upwards the next one facing downwards. The pattern continued, each kunai lying down vertically. There were about 10 kunai all together. In the top right corner, there were four brown coloured spheres, light grenades. Below those were four black spheres, smoke bombs. Below them, a coil of steel wire neatly wound up. In the bottom right corner were a stack of explosive tags. Finally, in the middle were three different sized scrolls.

"The ninja tools you've been using are pretty old and worn out. This way everything will be new. You'll also be needing these." Jiraiya handed his students each their own medical pack. They were filled with bandages, bandage pins, band-aids, healing salve, several types of pills, including both food and plasma pills. There was an anti-poison and anti-burn cream too. "This was specially put together for you guys by a good friend of mine, Tsunade. You might remember her from a while back when we first met."

"The scary woman?" Yahiko questioned.

"The one and only, but don't let her hear you say that. She is, however, the expert on medical Ninjutsu so the medical pack should help you out."

"Thank her for us, please sensei," Konan asked.

"Of course. Now for the final gift. What you've all been waiting for. The proof of your acceptance as ninja." The final items that Jiraiya took out of the bag were three blue coloured forehead protectors. The metal rectangle on the headband had 4 vertical lines engraved on it.  
The symbol of the Hidden Rain Village.  
This was it. This is what the three Rain Genin had fought for. Why they were here.  
It was also the start. The first step was to become Genin. But no one would take a Genin trying to save their village seriously. They had to prove themselves, they had to be better, learn more, get stronger. Becoming Chunin was the next step.  
In the future, who knows, they might even achieve Jonin rank.

"Well, what are waiting for? Try them on." Jiraiya said. Konan tied the headband on and pushed her blue hair out from under the straps, allowing her hair to fall gently to her side.  
Yahiko tied his headband as well, shifting it one way then the next, trying to get the perfect position. "It's not a fashion accessory, Yahiko."

"Hey, I want it to look good on me," Yahiko replied, still tilting the headband indecisively. Nagato placed the protector around his forehead and looked in the mirror. It looked good on him but more importantly, it felt good. Like he and his friends were doing the right thing. "Not bad, Nagato, looking good there."

Nagato smiled. "Not bad yourself."

"I think it suits us quite well," Konan said, appearing next to her teammates, pushing any loose strands of her hair out of the way of covering the symbol. "We're finally ninja."

"Alright, now that that's all settled," Jiraiya started. "In about 3 hours I've booked an appointment to get your photos taken. You'll need them for your official ID badges as ninja. You can't enter the Chunin exam without them. Oh, and do me a favour, during the actual photo just smile, ok."

"Why? What does your ID look like sensei?" Nagato asked.

"Trust me you don't want to see."

"It's embarrassing that's why," Yahiko joked. "Now I really want to see it."

"The Third Hokage scolded me for two days over my photo. Said it made him look bad."

"Now I have to see it!" Yahiko said excitedly.

* * *

Wooden floorboards creaked underfoot of the three newly promoted Genin. Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan walked towards a desk manned by a Leaf Chunin. Jiraiya was leaning against a far-off wall, hands folded his head down, you could have mistaken him for sleeping standing up.

"Here are your ID badges," The Chunin said as the kids made it to the table. He handed out small white cards to each of them. Konan took hers first then Yahiko. When the Chunin held the card out for Nagato, the red-haired boy investigated the man's headband. A memory flashed across his mind, the Leaf symbol worn by the ninja that killed his parents. Nagato heard his mother scream out his name.

"Nagato!" Yahiko's voice cut the memory out. The Chunin was staring at the boy strangely. Nagato took his ID card silently. The cards contained an ID photo, a ninja registration number, date of birth and other standard information. That is, as much information the kids could give out. There were many things that they didn't know or had forgotten over the years because of living in a war zone. Nobody cares for the kids in those places.

"Let me see your photo," Yahiko commanded of Nagato, snatching the ID out of his hands. "You didn't smile!?" Yahiko said, confused.

"Nope," replied Nagato.

"You?" Yahiko asked Konan.

"No, why did you?" Konan said.

Yahiko looked disapprovingly at his ID. "I knew I shouldn't have smiled, it looks ridiculous." Nagato and Konan peeked over their friends' shoulder to get a good look at his ID. Yahiko's photo showed him grinning with that cheeky smile he has.

"It's not that bad, it's kinda cute," Konan confessed.

"Yeah, that's the problem. I'm a ninja now not a pet store owner. I'm supposed to look intimidating. Drive fear into my enemies. Make them run away."

"I'm not sure about running away, but you might get some hugs," Konan mocked. Nagato laughed, taking his identification back.  
Now it was official. They were real ninja now.  
Nagato touched his new necklace softly, pouring a slight amount of chakra into it. He saw an image of him and his friends, looking happy, wearing their new headbands. This made Nagato just as happy as he looked in the necklace.  
The kids found their sensei.

"Ok, that's taken care off," Jiraiya began. "I'm thinking one last celebration before the exam tomorrow. Dinner tonight, sound good?"

"Oh yeah, Ramen!" Yahiko cheered.

"It's not all about you, bigshot. Nagato? Konan?"

"I'm happy with Ramen," Nagato said.

"Me too," Konan agreed.

"Fine, it's settled then. Home for now." Jiraiya said.

* * *

It was a cold night. Yet, it was a busy night. Village civilians, crisscrossed around the roads, popping in and out of restaurants and bars. Families walked next to each other, friends laughed with each other. There was a cacophony of sound all around.  
Jiraiya, along with his three students were sitting at Ichiraku Ramen. Keeping out of the cold.

"Three Tonkotsu Ramen coming up." The Chef said. Three large bowls of Ramen were placed in front of the three kids. "One Miso Ramen for you sir," The chef said as he put a bowl in front of Jiraiya.  
Yahiko and Nagato rubbed their hands together, excited for their meal.

"Thanks, Sensei!" Nagato and Yahiko said in unison. Yahiko tore into his Ramen like a starving dog. The Tonkotsu Ramen contained large pieces of pork neatly stacked on top of each other. Half an egg with the yolk glistening like a tiny sun in the bowel. Onion mixed with garlic cloves adorned the pork slices. Warmth exuded from the Ramen. Nagato and Konan cupped the bowls warming their hands up. Konan carefully sipped her Ramens soup. Nagato brought a pork slice to his lips. His mouth warmed up. As the juice spilled down his throat, his whole body stopped shaking. The nights chilled air receding.

"While you guys are eating, I have one more thing to say." Jiraiya's face turned serious. "After the three of you found me in the Rain Village, and I started taking care of you, I never thought this is where we would end up. Just know, that I don't regret anything. I would do it all over again. I'm proud of the way the three of you have handled yourselves, despite the tragedies you've faced. I saw many terrible things during my time stationed in the Rain, but nothing can compare to the lives you have lived. However, you didn't let the war change who you are inside. You all remained kind and caring and smart. It might not exactly be warfare on the same level, but never underestimate the severity and danger of these exams. Plenty of Genin have died during the Chunin exams. Take care of each other and watch each other's backs. Most importantly, do yourselves and each other proud." Jiraiya finally let himself smile. "While you're at it, make me proud as well, well more than I am now. Don't embarrass me out there. Show everyone your power and resolve. Show them your courage and kindness. Show them that you can kick their butt when the time comes. Can you do that for me?"

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan had confidence written all over their faces. Determination spread through their body like the warmth of Ramen soup. They all nodded.

"Yes, Sensei!" They said in unison.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan were standing in Jiraiya's apartment. Today was the day of the Chunin exams. The Sannin was running around like a headless chicken.

"Have you got your new ninja tools? Yahiko do you have your katana? Do you want any breakfast?" Jiraiya kept asking his students as he panicked.

"Yes mum," Yahiko mocked.

"Sensei," Konan called out. "We're fine, you don't have to panic. We're all ready for the exams."

"Are you sure? I mean I remember my Chunin exams, in the morning I forgot to brush my teeth and…"

"Enough old geezer," Yahiko said sternly. Jiraiya snapped out of his panicked state. The three friends prepared outfits for the Chunin Exam. They wore long black jackets that ended at their knees. A vertical red stripe came down from the collar and finished at the waist where a navy blue sash was tied around them.

"Ok, if you say so. If you're ready, then let's go."

* * *

Jiraiya with his three students walked into the Hidden Leaf Ninja Academy. They came before a long hallway with a desk set up in front. Two Leaf Chunin had manned the desk. They both greeted Jiraiya with a friendly smile, then asked the Rain Genin for their ninja registration. They handed their ID's over then signed some paperwork. The Chunin ruffled through some papers and ticked boxes off a list. He handed the Genin back their ID's.

"All done, go inside that door when you're ready. Good luck." The Chunin pointed his thumb at the door down the hallway.

"Ok, I've already said everything I wanted to say to you," Jiraiya said. "Although, one more time can't hurt right? Good luck." Jiraiya gave his three students one last hug.

This was it, all their hard work and training had come to this moment. The three Rain orphans worked their butt off to become Genin and now it was time to complete the exam. Then they would become Chunin and help liberate their village as true Shinobi. The first step was done. Nagato looked over his two friends. He was proud of them, proud of himself, everything they had accomplished. Now it was time to show everyone else. Jiraiya and his students finished their hug.  
Right before they were about to go into the entrance hall, a cold chill swept the bodies of the kids. Their bodies froze, their spines burned with a strange cold, sweat poured down their foreheads and the back of their necks.  
None of them moved or said anything but they all felt it.  
They sensed death.

"So, these are your students, Jiraiya?" A voice came from behind. A voice dark and slippery. Like a wet tongue massaging your ears and neck. A voice as quiet as a whisper yet shouting inside your bones and soul.

"What are you doing here Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked.

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan turned around, practically forcing their bodies to move. They met Orochimaru's gaze and their hearts froze into ice blocks.  
They remembered Orochimaru. When the students first met their sensei in the Land of Rain. He was with the other two Legendary Sannin. The scary and short-tempered Lady Tsunade. However, for Tsunade scary had meant fierce.  
Then there was Orochimaru. He was scary as well, but his scary was like watching death descend upon a village. Murdering and butchering all he came across. There was something about him, a feeling, a presence. Time slowed down around him as if it was scared to proceed.  
Nagato also remembered that Orochimaru had wanted to kill them during their first meeting. He claimed it was to put them out of their misery because they lived as orphans. He said it would have been a favour. Such a dark and callous man. The Rain Genin found it hard to believe that their goofy and perverted sensei was teammates and best friends with this walking snake of a man. Perhaps 'man' wasn't the correct term to use.  
More like a demon.

"I heard that you were entering three students into the Chunin exam, so I decided to come down and show my support," Orochimaru said. Jiraiya eyed his friend suspiciously. "I've no doubt that your students have the capabilities to pass the exam." Orochimaru was staring at Nagato. Nagato's throat clenched. Everything around him went black, it was just him and Orochimaru in the room. "You have interesting eyes child. I can't wait to see what kind of power and skills you possess."

"Come on, let's go, we don't want to be late," Yahiko said as he put his hand on Nagato's shoulder. Nagato snapped out of his stupor. The world returned to normal.

"He's right, go ahead guys," Jiraiya said.

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan walked past Orochimaru and made their way through the hallway to the door at the end. They could hear Orochimaru chuckling to himself.

"Oh, Jiraiya, how I envy your good fortune. Coming across the famed Rinnegan," Orochimaru slithered out.

"What a creep," Yahiko whispered to his friends.

"Shh, he can probably still hear us," Konan added a little frightened.

Nagato gripped his gift from Jiraiya, the necklace around his neck. An image of the three Rain Genin breezed through the teardrop-shaped gem. It put him at ease. They got to the door. They stood in front of it. Turned back to their sensei who was giving them the thumbs up.

"Let's do this," Nagato said. He grabbed the handle and opened the door. A wave of chatter blasted the three Genin. The room was filled with an eclectic array of different people. Groups of three talked and laughed amongst themselves. All huddled in groups. Some ninja gave Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan a passing glance as they entered the room, then turned back to their own groups.  
The Rain Genin huddled in their own group just to the side of the door. They each snuck in a glance at their competition trying not to draw attention to themselves.

"There's Genin from all 5 great nations here, as well as some of the smaller villages," Nagato observed. To the side of him was another group of Genin from the Cloud Village. There was a young dark-skinned boy with short, black, spiked hair. There was a purple tattoo under his right eye in a horseshoe-shape. He was wearing a traditional Cloud ninja outfit. Blue undershirt and pants with a white flak jacket that crossed over only one shoulder. A headband wrapped around his forehead. A large Shuriken was strapped to his back. He was grinning happily while holding the handles of a wheelchair. This boys partner interested Nagato more. Another boy with lightly shaved blonde hair sat in the wheelchair. Same outfit, only both of his legs were bound together by bandages. He laughed along with his teammate.  
_A Genin in a wheelchair, how is he supposed to fight? _Nagato questioned to himself.  
Opposite the two boys, the third member of the trio was a young woman with long, wavy hair that covered one of her eyes. A katana strapped vertically straight on her back. Her face was deadpan.  
Nagato looked elsewhere, this time spotting a trio from the Sand Village. One guy had a bandaged disc stuck to his back. He had brown, muddled hair and two orange rectangles under his eyes, he wore the traditional Sand village outfit. He walked confidently with both hands behind his back. Behind him was a shorter girl, wearing a massively large jacket. The sleeves covered her hands, the end of the jacket reached her knees. The jacket was covered in dozens of pockets. On her head, she wore goggles and a Sand Village forehead protector. Finally, and again more interestingly the third member of the group was a large, bulky boy. A red bandana covered his hair and acted as his forehead protector. He wore a sleeveless jacket that left his ripped torso exposed. Yet, both his hands were completely covered in bandages.

"Nagato, what's wrong?" Yahiko asked his friend, seeing that he was perplexed.

"That guy from the Sand Village with bandaged arms. There isn't any chakra in those limbs," Nagato replied. Nagato had gained the ability to see chakra because of his Rinnegan. Whether in the outside world or inside a person's body. The muscular boy had chakra coursing through his whole body except his arms, they were just empty vessels. Nagato turned back to his friends. "There are definitely some strange Genin participating in this exam," Nagato said.

"Definitely, although, I think they feel the same way," Yahiko whispered while gesturing with his head for his comrade to turn around. Nagato turned around and caught several Genin from other villages staring at him.  
Sometimes he forgot because he couldn't see them, but his Rinnegan had always drawn attention from other people. A kid with purple-ringed eyes would seem just as weird as a boy in a wheelchair, or a boy with no chakra in his arms.

"There are a lot of teams participating," Konan stated.

"Yeah, this is gonna be tough," Nagato replied.

"Don't worry too much, you're gonna stress yourselves out," Yahiko tried to calm his friends down.

"Well, well, well, who would have thought that carrot top would make it into the Chunin exams?" A voice came out from the side of the Rain Genin. Yahiko's body immediately stiffened. When Nagato and Konan turned to give a face to the voice, they made shocked faces.  
A boy stood in front of them. Tall, with messy brown hair. A long, dark raincoat was draped over his body. A hood covered his face. There was a large bulge on his back, whatever it was had been covered up by the poncho, but it stuck out.

"Funsui!? What are you doing here?" Yahiko exclaimed. Years ago, when Nagato had just joined Yahiko and Konan, before the trio had met Jiraiya, within the war zone that was the Rain Village, they had come across a bunch of other orphaned children. The orphanage that they stayed at was eventually destroyed in combat. Luckily, Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan weren't near the battle, so they were unharmed. Unfortunately, a lot of the other kids were killed. Funsui was one of the survivors. He had met the Rain orphans while looking for a safe place to stay, he even shared some food scraps with them. Although, they were nothing like friends.  
War is a terrible thing for both the soldiers fighting in it and the civilians trying to survive out of it. Aside from the death and destruction that it causes, it also has the horrifying effect to corrupt those that suffer from it. It's true that Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan had seen atrocities throughout the war in the Rain. Witnessed the very worst of mankind. However, they decided amongst each other that as both friends and teammates they would never let the war change them as people. They still cared for their village, that's why they were participating in the Chunin Exam. They weren't naïve to the world, but they would remain kind and humble, fight for what was right. Protect those who couldn't protect themselves.  
The three friends could be an exception.  
There had been plenty of other kids who had experienced the same war yet changed for the worse. Cynical, but worse still, violent. Some orphans had absorbed warfare into their very bones. Wanting to fight out of revenge, to spill more blood, they were angry because they felt they had the right to kill. Darkness took hold of them. They let it take over them, wanted it in fact. An excuse that would let them fight for the thrill of it. They had nothing left to lose. These kids had seen so much death that it was no longer a bother anymore. Whether they saw killing, or they were the ones to create it.  
Funsui was one of these kids.  
Years later, during the training with Jiraiya, the three kids had run into Funsui again. He was different, no longer the boy who cried for his parents. He had joined a resistance group of Rain Village Chunin. That was when he became a killer. From a distance, Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan had watched as Funsui slaughtered civilians from neighbouring countries. Not enemy ninja, none of the civilians made any attempt to fight back. Solely because they were from a different land, he and his Chunin companions had decided death for all of them. It was because of people like Funsui that the Rain Genin wanted to save their Village, hopefully, change it for the better, and change the people inside of it.

"It's been a long time," Funsui started. "I've survived a lot to make it here."

"I bet ya have," Yahiko replied.

"We've made it this far as Genin together. However, my team and I weren't privileged enough to be trained by a Legendary Sannin." Funsui said, slightly angry. "Although, I have met my fair share of Legendary ninja throughout my training. Hanzo of the Salamander personally recommended me to take the exam."

Yahiko folded his arms in disgust.

"In other words, you've been brainwashed, forced to fight for a lost cause. Hanzo doesn't fight for the Rain Village, he fights to consolidate his own power, he doesn't care about anything else," Yahiko argued. Funsui took a step forward and grabbed Yahiko by the shirt, lifting him up slightly.

"That's a lot of shit coming from you considering you're working for the enemy," Funsui countered.

"What enemy!?" Yahiko asked.

"The Leaf Village is the Rain Village's number one enemy dumbass. This dump started the war in the Rain, and now you serve them like a dog. You are a traitor."

"Look at our headbands dumbass, they're marked with the symbol of the Rain Village, we're not traitors to anything or anyone."

Funsui grunted. "You may wear our headbands, dress in our clothes and use our Jutsu but you and your pathetic friends are no longer ninja of the Rain,"

Yahiko considered that statement the last straw of his argument. He knew the test hadn't started yet, but he wasn't going to let that comment slide. Yahiko gripped one of his katana and began pulling it out.  
A hand shot out from the side and grabbed Funsui's arm.

"Alright you two let's break it up, the test hasn't even started yet." It was the dark-skinned boy from the Cloud Village. "Rowdy couple of guys aren't ya."

"Who the hell are you?" Funsui seethed.

"The names Makui of the Cloud Village, nice to meet ya, buddy," Makui said with a happy smile on his face.

"This isn't a pleasure, get your hand off me."

"You release him, I release you. Come on, we're competitors but we don't have to be enemies." Makui said still grinning. Funsui and Makui stared each other down for several seconds until Funsui finally let Yahiko go and gave him a small shove backwards. The Cloud ninja did as he promised and released his grip on the angered Rain Genin.

"We'll settle this carrot top." Funsui backed away and joined his two teammates who were glaring at Yahiko.

"Thanks for your help," Yahiko said.

"No problem," Makui replied. He too returned to his group. He gave his teammate in the wheelchair a fist bump.

"Are you ok?" Nagato asked.

"Fine," Yahiko said. "Just annoyed. Can't believe after all those years he turned into… that."

"We've just begun the Chunin Exam and we already made an enemy," Nagato stated.

"True, though it seems we also made an ally," Konan said. Nagato looked over to the Cloud ninja, he watched the boy laughing with his group. Nagato smiled to himself.  
A second later his smiled dropped as there was a loud bang that screamed around the room. A giant puff of white smoke flooded the front of the classroom. When the smoke cleared a large group of Leaf ninja appeared. At least a dozen shinobi wearing grey outfits and a young-looking man wearing a green flak jacket in the centre.

"Everybody, listen up," The man said. The whole room fell instantly silent, every Genin's attention was drawn to the newly arrived group. "The first stage of the Chunin Exam has now begun, so pay attention and follow what I say."

A boy at the front of the room stood up to the speaking man. "You're pretty young to be ordering us around, who are you?" It was hard to tell what was happening from the very back of the room where Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan were standing. However, something happened to the man's face and the boy yelped and dropped to the ground.

"I'm the proctor for the first exam, my name is Hizashi Hyuga. I will not tolerate disobedience. Misbehave and I will expel you from the test. Find your names on the desks and take your seat. Do it quickly." Hizashi ordered. Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan found their seats. They had been separated from each other. Nagato was seated in the middle of the rows of desks. Yahiko somewhere near the front and Konan off to the side about two rows behind Nagato. After a minute every Genin found their seat. The grey-clad ninja took their own seats, sitting in a row at both sides of the room, all of them holding clipboards. "The first test is a written exam. I'll explain the rules so be quiet and pay attention, I will not repeat instructions."

_A written test! Crap!_ Yahiko thought.

"You have exactly one hour to complete the exam. The test contains 10 questions. As of now, you all have 10 points. Every question wrong is a one-point loss to your score. If you answer all ten-question incorrectly your score will be zero and you will fail the test. Teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three team members." The last statement caused an uproar among the participants.

"That's unfair," Someone shouted.

"Why?" Another person exclaimed.

"SILENCE!" Hizashi roared. The Jonin's voice forced the uproar into silence once again. "You would all have noticed the sentinels sitting on the sides of the room. Their job is to monitor you during the duration of this exam and seek out any signs of cheating. Every time they spot a participant cheating, they will automatically deduct two points from that person's score. If anyone is caught cheating five times you will be disqualified. Every one of you are here to become Shinobi, so show us what exceptional shinobi you are. Now, pay attention to this part, should any of you obtain a score of zero your entire team will fail alongside you." Once again, the room burst out into more questions and arguments. "SILENCE!" Hizashi roared again. The room fell quiet. "As I've stated already you have one hour to complete the test, however, the tenth question will be given out after 45 minutes have passed. Which means you will have 15 minutes to answer the 10th and final question." Hizashi took a moment to allow what he said to settle amongst the crowd of Genin. Then he started to speak again. "You can begin the test now!"  
Immediately the room filled up with the sounds of pencils to paper, scratching away at the test.  
Nagato hesitated for a while, trying to absorb all the information and rules he was bombarded with. This wasn't any normal written exam there was more to it. He was worried the most about the fact that teams were graded based on the scores of all members. He didn't want to doubt his teammates; however, he also didn't know how well they would do. To add on more pressure Nagato doubted himself, he was good in practice but that was mostly due to the Rinnegan or at least Jiraiya sensei had said so. Nagato closed his eyes to calm himself down. He would trust his friends.  
Yahiko panicked, sweating harshly. Jiraiya sensei had always taught them in the outside world. He believed they would learn quickly if they did everything themselves. He never had the opportunity to go to a proper Ninja Academy.  
_Ok, Yahiko, one step at a time._ Yahiko thought to himself. _Read the questions first then decide which ones are easy to answer. Question 1#, Please write down in order the names of all 44 hand signs used for the Water Dragon Jutsu._ Yahiko's eyes snapped open. _Are these people kidding me? That Jutsu is way too advanced for any Genin, there's no way anyone here can answer that. Move on, Yahiko, Question 2#, Decipher the code given._ All Yahiko saw was a box of squiggles and lines. _Yeah right, this test is impossible._ Yahiko felt panic rising in his chest. He didn't want to be the guy to let his team down.  
Nagato looked over the questions as well. _Even I struggle with the Water Dragon Jutsu. That Jutsu is Jonin level at least. These other questions aren't any better. Question 5#, You are part of a squad with 4 other members. You are faced with defeating 50 enemy ninja. Without the use of Jutsu, using only ninja tools, please describe the most efficient tactic to take your enemy out. Panic and crawl into the fetal position._ Nagato joked with himself. The red-haired ninja looked away from his paper to observe the others. The Genin next to him was from the Leaf Village, he was wearing a top hat with the Leaf Symbol marked onto it.  
That was when he noticed something strange.  
All around him he was picking up slight bursts of chakra being emitted by other participants. There wasn't a lot of it, just fleeting wisps of chakra here and there, but it was enough to arouse suspicion in Nagato. There would only be chakra if people were using Jutsu. Nagato questioned why they would be using Jutsu during a written exam. Then, like sudden rain pouring over him, everything clicked.  
_The proctor said that we would get points deducted for cheating, but we wouldn't fail the exam unless we got caught 5 times. Why? The punishment for cheating doesn't seem that severe. Add on the fact that there was ninja using Jutsu during the exam, there's only one explanation, they want us to cheat._  
Nagato remembered some of his training with Jiraiya while in the Rain. His sensei had told him and his friends that if they were ever in an unknown area or situation, they would need to gather as much information as possible based on their surroundings. This test followed the same idea. Cheating was equal to gathering information. If you can gather info without an enemy knowing, the easier the escape. The only question remaining for Nagato was how to cheat?  
Konan's test paper was empty, she hadn't answered a single question, or to put it bluntly she couldn't, the questions were far too difficult to answer. Although, after seeing the man next to her cheat, although quite poorly, she figured out the true purpose of the exam. She wondered if her friends came to the same conclusion. Even If they didn't, she had to act fast. Before the guy next to her was called out for cheating.  
Konan cupped her left hand and created a small, rectangular, blank piece of paper which was hidden in her palm. Then with her right hand she touched the side of her exam paper and pushed it over to her neighbour. Her exam paper floated on top of the exam paper of the guy. He stopped writing and turned to Konan.

"Oh! Please forgive me I am so clumsy," Konan apologised. With her left hand, she grabbed her paper back, however, at the same time she touched his exam paper with her fingers and sent her chakra through it. "I'm so sorry for disturbing you."

"It's ok," The guy replied. Konan gave him a cheerful smile. Taking her paper back she placed it in front of her. She made a quick look at the sentinels sitting on her side. A couple of them were looking at her but she couldn't tell if they figured out what she did. Konan took a deep breath. She opened her cupped hand and looked at the blank paper she made with her Ninjutsu. It was no longer blank. Konan was able to copy her neighbour's answers and keep them on her hidden paper. She grabbed her pencil and started answering the questions. She did it as discreetly as possible. She took breaks after each question so that it wasn't suspicious that she kept looking at her hand. The guy next to her had gotten through at least 8 questions, she was shocked, considering how badly he cheated.  
It was around 10 minutes into the exam that Konan had cheated off her neighbour and about 10 minutes later that he and his team were disqualified for cheating.  
Konan had answered all the questions she could, now it was time to help her friends out whether they needed it or not. As the guy next to her stood up to leave, Konan made her move. She wrapped the cheat sheet around her pencil and changed the colour and texture of the paper to match the utensil. As the guy next to her stood up to leave the room, Konan pretended to drop her pencil onto the ground. Trying to make it seem like the pencil dropped because of the table moving as the guy stood. Then with her leg, she kicked the pencil along the ground, through the feet of the other Genin, it rolled and rolled until it finally stopped at Nagato's feet.

"Oh no, my pencil," Konan feigned shock. One of the sentinels gave her his own pencil.

"Here, use this," He said.

"Thank you," Konan replied. Taking the pencil, the sentinel sat back down.

Nagato picked up the pencil at his feet wondering what Konan had done. As soon as he picked it up, he detected Konan's chakra all over it. He found a corner of the paper and discreetly peeled it off the pencil and cupped the paper in his hands. He put Konan's pencil down next to him. Now, it was Nagato's turn to cheat. He started copying down the answers. He just wished that these answers were correct.  
After around 10 minutes Nagato had finished writing all the answers down. During that time more then a dozen teams had been sent out. The classroom was now filled with empty chairs. With Nagato finished with the cheat sheet he worked on a plan to get it to Yahiko. He was interrupted by a loud bang, that came from the right side of him. A Genin was furious with the sentinels, claiming that he hadn't cheated. The sentinels were forced to drag the Genin out by force, his two teammates embarrassingly followed suit.  
That was when Nagato's heart and stomach dropped. After the commotion ended, he turned his attention back to the cheat sheet which was missing. His eyes opened wide.  
_What the hell!? Where is it?_ Nagato screamed at himself inside his mind. _Did someone steal it? Impossible, I was holding It, no one could have snatched it out of my hand. Did I drop it? No, no way._ Nagato looked around himself just to make sure. The paper had completely vanished. He looked over at his neighbour who was busy writing things down, it didn't look like he stole it. Also, there was no trace of chakra coming from the Genin with the top hat. The only explanation that made sense to Nagato was that someone else had stolen the paper from him. When and how? He had no clue. _Sorry Yahiko, you're on your own. Do the best you can._  
Time moved slowly for Nagato and Konan. After they finished with their cheating, they didn't have much to do. They had answered 8 out of 10 questions. They wouldn't dare try to risk being caught cheating for one more answer. There were around 5 minutes left before the 45-minute mark, which meant they would be getting the 10th question soon. Every minute that went by was agonizing. Nagato wished this test was over. A lot more teams were eliminated while he was waiting for the end.  
Finally, that end came.

"45 minutes have passed. I will now reveal the 10th question," Hizashi shouted. "But first, there are some more rules that you need to be aware of." Some of the remaining Genin groaned, obviously sick and tired of the many seemingly unfair rules. "You will be given the choice of whether you wish to take the 10th question. However, should you choose not to take the 10th question, then regardless of your previous answers to the other 9 questions, you will automatically be given a score of zero and fail."

"Then it's obvious that we have to answer the question," A Genin shouted at the proctor.

"Was I finished speaking?" Hizashi said with straight coldness and annoyance. The room went silent. "Should you accept to hear the final question but fail to answer it correctly, you will not only fail but you will never be allowed to participate in the Chunin Exam's ever again! If you choose to give up now you can try again next year."  
A wave of pain tore through Nagato's body. He felt like all his hard work was being smashed right in front of him. He was presented with two impossible options. Either give up now and try again next year. Or continue now and possibly fail, never being allowed to become a Chunin. Then he and his friends' dreams would be over. He would never be able to face his sensei, he would be humiliated. Nagato thought about trying again next year, but what if the same thing happened again and again? He would never be promoted. He hated the situation and had no idea what to do.  
A loud slam emerged from near the front of the desks.

"I don't care what the question is. I've worked my butt off to get here. I'm staying right here so give me the question so I can ace this damn test." Yahiko shouted. He folded his arms and slouched back into his chair. Nagato smiled.  
_Of course, that was you Yahiko. You always know what to say to help a friend out. I'll stay and take the test with you. Whatever the outcome, pass or fail we do it together._  
Konan was on her own laughing on the inside at Yahiko's outburst.  
_Fool, always the drama queen making a scene. You're right though. We stay together. I'll take the question._  
While the Rain Genin stayed to take the final question, around 5 other Genin teams opted to leave and try again the next year. Making the hall feel even emptier.

"I believe this is everyone that's left. Now for the 10th question," Hizashi paused for a moment. "There isn't one." Everyone's jaw dropped in disbelief. One Genin started to rise to ask a question but Hizashi glared at him menacingly, the Genin sat back down in silence. "To answer your questions, there was no 10th question. To put it simply your decision to stay was the answer to the final question. A lot of you are aware of the fact that this was no ordinary written exam. I know because I was watching all of you. As were the sentinels. The point of the first trial was not to test your mental intelligence. Rather how well you can gather intelligence from others. Secretly stealing information from your surrounding participants to gain the answers to the questions. Showing us how well you can gather information using a myriad of different Jutsu and skills. In a real mission, should any of you be captured one day, you will have to obtain any data you can to find an escape route. Even the most minuscule info could prove lifesaving. If you can do that without an enemy noticing. Then your escape is practically assured. Of course, a lot of you realised that the questions were far too difficult for any Genin to answer. There were two disguised Chunin taking the exam with you, giving you someone to cheat from." One male and one female Chunin stood up from their seats, walked to the front of the room and stood slightly behind Hizashi. "Those who are not confident in their abilities or those who clearly lack the skill to gather information discreetly do not deserve to be promoted to Chunin. Congratulations to you all, you have passed the first exam."

Relief flooded Nagato's body like a warm shower. He felt like smiling. Breaking into laughter. He did it. He passed the first step. He turned to Konan who was smiling back at him. Yahiko turned to his friends and gave them the thumbs up while wearing his typical goofy grin.  
The remaining Genin weren't given time to celebrate their passing of the test.  
In the middle of the classroom, a man suddenly appeared as if there the whole time. His body blurred and flickered into reality right before everyone's eyes. He walked calmly to the front of the room then turned around. He was wearing the traditional Leaf ninja outfit. His hair was covered by a bandana styled forehead protector. His eyes were a crimson red.

"While all of you might be in the mood for celebrations, there is no time to celebrate. My name is Shinku Yuhi. I will be the proctor for the second stage of the Chunin Exam. I am not only a Jonin, but in this village, I am the overseer of training of both Genin and Chunin. So, if there is anyone you wanted to impress, I would be a good choice. I want to see what all of you are capable of. Do your best and prove to me what excellent ninja you are. Ready? Follow me."

* * *

**A/N**

**Hey everyone.**

**When I first came up with the idea of this fanfic I started with Nagato being in the Forest of Death. That's the part I'm most excited to write. So I kinda wanted to breeze through the first exam. I had plans to explain how a bunch of different Genin would cheat. But I thought it would be better to keep their abilities secret for now. It was hard to find a way to get Nagato and Yahiko to cheat because their Jutsu doesn't allow it. I hope how Konan cheated made sense with the way I wrote it.  
With the proctors of the exams, I wanted to use actual characters. Turns out there aren't a lot of characters around Jiraiya's age. Most of the parents of the Genin 12 in Naruto were fairly young when the Rain orphans were kids. I started with Hizashi as the first proctor because out of all the parents he's the oldest. He's around 24 years old at this point in time. I think it's believable that Hizashi would be a Jonin at that age being a Hyuga and all. Plus, I always saw him as a genius type like Neji. Also, I thought it would be cool to have a Hyuga proctor because of the Byakugan he can see everyone at the same time.  
The second proctor Shinku Yuhi is actually Kurenai's dad (Had to look hard to find this guy). His age isn't listed but he seems around Jiraiya's age. Plus on his wiki page, he was said to be in charge of training Genin and Chunin, so it made sense to use him in a proctor.  
**

**Thanks.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan were standing in front of a humongous forest. It was surrounded by a steel fence. The fence had gates embedded into it. Other teams were hanging in front of the forest as well. After the first exam more then half of the teams had been disqualified. There were still plenty of teams left, but not as many as beforehand.  
Nagato snuck another look at the competition.  
He saw Makui still wheeling his friend in the wheelchair. He saw Funsui and his team in the background. The Sand Village team were huddled together.  
A trio of boys from the Grass Village were all wearing jackets made from soil and grass. The top hat ninja that sat next to Nagato during the first exam was joined by two other Genin also wearing top hats. Like a trio of magicians. Quite a few teams from the Leaf Village had made it through.  
"Everyone, listen up!" Shinku called out. All the teams focused their attention on the proctor. "This forest is the stage for the second phase of the Chunin Exam. We call it the Forest of Death. The rules are simple, an all-out battle royale to collect these." Shinku held out two scrolls. One blue, the other white. "Each team will be given one of these two scrolls. Your job is to collect the scroll that you are missing from another team. Once you have collected both scrolls make your way to the centre of the forest. There will be a tower awaiting your arrival. However, you can only enter once you possess both scrolls. Under no circumstances are you allowed to look at the contents of the scroll during the exam. As for the rules, well, there aren't any. You are given full permission to take scrolls from other teams by any means necessary."

"Any means necessary? Does that include death?" Funsui asked.

Shinku heaved a sigh, then narrowed his eyes seriously. "Yes, lethal force is permitted."

"Excellent!" Funsui cheered. Yahiko turned to look at Funsui. The two met each other's gaze, and Funsui smirked.

"You have a total of 5 days to complete the second exam. Food and water will have to be scavenged. If you know what to look for you won't starve or die of thirst. At no point can you give up. If you are injured or incapacitated, honestly, too bad. This test creates a simulation if you will, for actual warfare. Do whatever it takes to survive." The proctor took a break to let the explanation sink in. Then he pulled out a stack of paper. "You will each be expected to read and sign this form. It's a consent form. Should any of you be killed during the exam, we won't be liable. If you're planning on becoming Chunin this is the type of danger you're expected to face." The consent form was passed around to the participants. "Once you've filled out the form take it to the desk over there to receive your scroll."

The fence surrounding the forest had a booth in front of it. The booth had curtains that came down to block the view of the other participants, no one would know which teams got what scroll. Nagato and his two friends filled out the form and took it to the booth. A Leaf Chunin took all three consent forms, looked them over briefly, then handed the team their scroll. They were given a blue Earth scroll as well as a paper with the number 5 on it.

"Who gets to hold it?" Yahiko asked.

"Nagato, you should," Konan confessed.

"You guys sure?"

"Yeah," Yahiko said. "You have the best chance of keeping it safe."

"Wait a moment," Konan whispered. She took out a green-coloured scroll that was roughly the same size as the Earth scroll. Konan applied the Transformation Jutsu to the green scroll's paper cover and made it look exactly like the Earth scroll. "Just in case someone does steal our scroll, we can make sure that they don't get the right one."

"Genius," Yahiko said in amazement. Nagato put both scrolls into his ninja pouch.

The trio left the booth as the Sand Genin entered. A few minutes passed and every team was given their scroll. Shinku told the teams to go to the gate number that was provided to them with the scroll. The Rain Genin had gate number 5.

"Everyone ready? Good luck to all of you," Shinku Yuhi called out. "The second stage of the Chunin exams has now begun!" Every gate circling the fence of the Forest of Death opened at once. All the Genin charged into the forest without hesitation. Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan burst through the gate, running at top speed.  
After a minute or so of running the three ran up a humongous tree and met at the top of a thick branch.

"We're in baby!" Yahiko said excitedly.

"Yeah, the nerves are kicking in now," Nagato replied. Yahiko slapped his friend on the back.

"Don't chicken out now,"

"I'm good, don't worry. First things first, Jiraiya sensei would tell us to gather food and water. Before we try to engage the other teams in combat."

"I'm on it," Konan said. She held her palms out and sheets of paper peeled off her skin. The paper folded themselves into half a dozen origami butterflies. The paper insects took flight, scouting the surrounding area. "If there's water nearby, I'll find it."

"Still cool," Yahiko praised Konan.

"While Konan's looking for food and water, we should get to a vantage point," Nagato suggested. The trio jumped off the branch at once and proceeded deeper into the forest. Eventually, Nagato found a tall tree. "Stay here, I'm gonna take a quick look." Nagato ran up the tree, made it to the top and stood in the tree's leafy bush. The Forest of Death was massive. Wide in circumference. It was the size of a small village. The canopy of trees created a sea of green and brown that spread as far as the eye could see. Very far off into the distance, a pointed roof could be seen.  
_That must be the tower, _Nagato thought. The red-haired ninja ran back down the tree and joined his teammates.  
"Honestly, there wasn't much to see. A lot of trees, but I saw the top of the tower. It's way off in the distance, I'd say about 20 kilometres North-East."

"Damn, this place is huge," Yahiko said. "Doesn't look it from the outside."

"My butterflies have found a small river about 600 metres North-West," Konan told her team.

"Let's go," Nagato said. The team left for the river. The trio made it quickly. It was a fairly small river and not very wide. Konan had her paper butterflies continue to scout the area. Searching for enemies. Nagato took out a cantina and filled it up with clear blue water.

"Konan, pass me your cantina," Yahiko asked. Konan took her cantina out and threw it at her friend. Yahiko caught it and filled both bottles up to full capacity. After Yahiko snapped its lid shut and threw the cantina back to Konan, he noticed something swimming along the riverbank. It looked like a log but there was something misshapen about it. It looked like it had arms and legs. Then he noticed the large amount of red pouring out into the stream.  
It was a body. "Oh shit," Yahiko said, sounding deflated. Yahiko, gathering chakra into his feet walked on the water and dragged the body out.  
The corpse belonged to a Genin from the Hidden Mist Village, a blue sash was tied around his shoulder. Nagato and Konan knelt down beside Yahiko.

"Poor guy," Konan started. "He was sitting a few rows ahead of me during the written test."

"I wonder if his team made it?" Said Nagato.

"Guys," Yahiko said, getting the attention of Nagato and Konan. "Let's make a promise right now. We don't kill, no matter what. We get through these exams cleanly." Yahiko's face was full of determination.

"Got it," Nagato and Konan said in unison. Konan's body twitched.

"We've got a team incoming," Konan said.

"Let's go!" Nagato replied. The three Genin used the body flicker to get away from the river in a blur of speed. Leaving the corpse behind on the river bank. The three stopped running when they believed they were safe.  
Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan were trudging their way through the Forest of Death. Managing to avoid their pursuers. There was a reliance on Konan's paper butterflies to scout the surrounding area as the three ninja weren't experts on the sensing technique.  
It was now that the Rain ninja were feeling the effects of the forest. It was a totally different environment from what they were used to. Their old home was in a state of constant rain. Even when it didn't rain – which wasn't very often- it was damp and chilling to the bone. The rain also prevented the growth of wildlife. There was hardly any grass or trees, not a lot of the colour green anywhere. Rocks and gravel and sad black heaps of mountains reigned the Rain village. There were even fewer animals around. Most of the farms had been abandoned due to the war, the farm animals were taken into the centre of the Rain Village. Leaving the outside villages to starve. Here and there you might be lucky to find a cat or dog. Nagato was lucky to find a dog, however that dog…  
Right now, inside the forest was the complete opposite. The colour green was abundant, it was everywhere, maybe there was too much. Thick, muscular trees stood at attention all around, some bent and twisted here and there. There was grass as far as the eye could see. Here the wildlife was equally abundant. Insects buzzed around the three ninja. Mosquitoes were annoying the kids, Yahiko slapping his neck to kill the nuisances. Birds and owls watched the contests like guardians, flying away when someone came close to them. The proctor had claimed there were dangerous animals inside. None had been encountered, yet.  
The biggest thing that was dragging the three-man team down was the heat. The sun was practically non-existent in the Land of Rain. Now, it was burning, sweltering. Maybe, they weren't used to it, but they were sweating profusely. There was sweat build up behind their headbands. The part of their jackets under their armpits were saturated with sweat. Their bodies felt sluggish. The heat was a wall that had to be pushed through to continue.  
Still, there was no giving up now.  
They had water. They found some edible berries and plants along the way, for now that would have to suffice.  
Time was difficult to measure, with so many things going on and having to keep their guard up at all time, Nagato and his two friends had given up trying to find the time. Nagato guessed that perhaps 20 minutes or so had gone past.  
They had finished their preparations. Gathering provisions and performing reconnaissance. Now it was time to get a scroll.

"You guys ready to start messing some teams up?" Yahiko asked. "The quicker we get a scroll the more time we get to rest."

"Yeah," Replied Nagato. "We should check out what scroll they have before confronting them. If they have an Earth Scroll like us, there's no need to engage." Nagato thought back to the dead Mist Genin. That wasn't going to happen to them nor would they actively take another's life. Nagato's mind then flashed to Funsui. They had to be careful of him and his team. The boy wondered if the Mist Genin was Funsui's first casualty. He pushed the thought aside, looked at his necklace once more, saw a floating image of his friends and steeled his resolve.

"Looks like somebody was a little sloppy making their way through here." Yahiko knelt down to one knee on the soft, green grass. He pointed to a patch of grass that had been compressed down in the shape of a human footprint. "Even better, they left us a track." Yahiko traced his finger in a vertical line. There were at least a dozen grass footprints trodden into the ground, leading north. "Shall we pay them a visit?"  
Nagato and Konan nodded. The kunoichi sending her paper butterflies forwards to follow the prints and scout for any danger ahead.  
The footprints that were left behind were easy to follow. Perhaps a little too easy to follow. It could be a trap. Nagato wanted to check the situation out first before making any moves. The tracks vanished inside a berry bush. Beyond the bush was a small clearing, a wall of trees surrounding an area. Climbing a nearby tree, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan knelt side by side on a thick trunk, looking out over the grassy zone. Konan's paper butterflies folded back into rectangle sheets and returned back into her body. She was panting slightly. That Jutsu couldn't be used for long periods yet.  
Leaning against a mossy tree trunk was a boy wearing a Hidden Mist headband. His left arm and leg were covered in bandages, albeit very sloppily tied. He was grunting painfully. His teammate was giving him a drink of water from a leather canteen bag. The injured boy took a large gulp and continued to moan. The second boy had bloodstains on his blue shirt. Both Mist Genin were wearing blue sashes tied around their torsos.

"They must be teammates of the dead Genin we found earlier," Yahiko stated. "They probably don't even know what happened to their friend."

"They were attacked," Nagato concluded. "One of them dies the other gets injured. Only one of them left to defend."

"Hey, look at that," Konan said, pointing to the injured boy. Next to the boy in bandages was a white scroll. It was left out in the open. Lying there ripe for the taking.

"These guys are basically asking to be robbed," Yahiko stated. "It's almost too easy. It's the scroll we need as well, the Heaven scroll. We should take it while we have the chance. Ready you two?"

"Yahiko wait!" Nagato exclaimed. The Rinnegan boy was focusing intensely at the injured Genin and his blood-stained friend.  
He knew what the second test was about. He knew what he had to do to pass the second exam. Yet, something didn't sit well with him. Maybe it was his naivety, maybe it was his kindness being a hindrance to his goal. Taking the scroll from people so defenceless. He couldn't do it. It felt wrong. He felt like a bully, like a coward.  
He imagined himself back in the Rain Village, staring at war orphans, children clinging to whatever food or valuables they had left. He remembered what it was like to lose everything he had. He didn't want to be the one to take things away from those who suffered. He was trying to fight against people like that. "I can't do it Yahiko, I'm sorry," Nagato started. "He's injured, their friend is dead. They're completely defenceless. I don't want to win this way. Earlier you said we win this fairly and cleanly."

"Hey!" Nagato turned to his friend. "You don't have to apologise, I get it. Just saying, we're probably not gonna have a better chance than this. But if you give the word we'll move on," Yahiko said. Nagato hesitated to give an answer. Thoughts flashed through his mind, speeding in and out.  
_Take the scroll from the defenceless and be done with the exam.  
Leave and let them recover._

"Let's move on," Nagato finally decided. They started to move along the trunk, readying themselves to continue their journey. Leaving the two Mist Genin alone. Even though they were missing the chance to get a Heaven Scroll, Nagato didn't feel upset about stealing from an injured person.

"Who are you?" A voice shouted.

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan stopped before they could leave. Thinking they had been caught. A new Genin had showed up, strolling confidently towards the Mist Ninja. The new arrival was wearing a coat made out of soft earth and covered in grass. A pointed Kasa hat adorned his head, throwing his face under shade. He was wearing a simple sleeveless tunic and brown pants. A long spear was tied to his back.

"What do you Grass ninja want?" The uninjured Mist ninja questioned. The question was met with silence. "Don't come any closer." The Mist ninja warned again. The Grass ninja continued walking forwards.

The Mist ninja growled, took out a kunai from his back pouch and charged his enemy. His kunai swipe missed, and his enemy withdrew his spear from his back. The Grass ninja flicked his wrist and knocked the kunai out of his enemies' hand with the tip of his spear. Then he thrust his spear and pierced the Mist ninja through the stomach.  
The three Rain Genin watching from the treetops all gasped, almost in unison. Their jaws all dropped.  
The grass Genin removed his spear from the gut of his enemy, the once silver-tipped spear was drenched in red. Blood pooled from the Genin's stomach.

"Nooo!" The injured mist ninja screamed before ending in a coughing fit. The grass ninja twirled his spear and flicked the blood off of the tip.

"We have to help him," Nagato said.

"Yeah," Yahiko agreed. The Grass ninja walked over to the injured Mist Ninja and pointed his spear at his throat. He scoffed at his weakened enemy then bent down to pick up the Heaven scroll. The scroll drifted away from the Genin's touch, then flew upwards into the canopy. The Grass ninja looked upwards and saw the scroll find its way into the hands of Nagato. The three Rain Genin jumped down from the thick trunk and landed on the ground behind their target. "Get away from him," Yahiko yelled. Nagato placed the scroll inside his pouch for now.  
The Grass ninja removed his spear point away from the injured boy's neck. He twirled it around a couple of times then pointed it at his three new enemies.

"We need to be careful, chances are this guy's not alone," Nagato warned.

"I'll go in first, back me up," Yahiko said. Yahiko charged forwards, withdrawing one of his katana. Yahiko's katana and the Grass ninja's spear clashed.  
Three against one meant that team Jiraiya had the advantage. Nagato started to move forward. Before he took a step, he felt a strong grip wrap around his leg. Nagato froze in place, he looked down and saw a hand creeping out of the grass.

"What the hell!" Nagato exclaimed. First, there was a hand, then an entire human body was growing out of the grass. A giant metal gauntlet was covering the body's free hand. The fingers were metal talons. The ninja's gauntlet came around Nagato's throat.

"Move and you're dead," The new ninja said. "Three on one against Kusayari would be unfair, so those two are gonna fight it out themselves. You are stuck with me, Koke," The Grass ninja Koke said. His voice was low and scratchy.

"Konan!" Nagato gave Konan a fierce look. Konan understood instantly and jumped away.

"Don't try anythi…"

"**Shinra Tensei!**" Nagato roared. Koke was blasted backwards. He flipped in mid-air and dug his steel claw into the ground stopping himself from being pushed away. Nagato weaved hand signs and turned to face his enemy. "**Water Style: Raging Wave!**" It was only when Nagato turned that he got a quick glance of his enemy. Like the first Grass ninja, he too was wearing a cape of earth and grass. His black metal gauntlet glinted in the day. Koke's long, black hair was like a mane. His face was also covered in earth, his skin tone was a mixture of green moss and brown dirt, blending in with the ground. Fitting for a Grass ninja.  
Nagato's wave of water washed over Koke and he disappeared. Konan, who had backed up from her teammate, saw Koke dig underground with an Earth Style Jutsu to evade the Raging Wave.  
Konan summoned sheets of paper for an attack. Somewhere, in the distance, Konan heard a high-pitched whistle. The sound invaded her head and her body tensed up. She became rigid and unmoving. Tendrils of thin weeds sprouted beneath her feet and began entangling her body.  
Nagato was surprised to see his enemy gone then refocused himself as he saw lumps of earth being pushed out of the ground. Nagato knew that his enemy was travelling underground. He would bait his enemy into an attack. Right as Koke was about to attack and Nagato was going to counter-attack, a sharp sound pierced the Rinnegan boy and his body froze. Koke erupted out of the earth and gave Nagato a left-hook. Nagato rolled across the ground then quickly got back to his feet. The whistle sound came again and Nagato froze up again. Blades of grass wrapped around the boy's body.

"**Shinra Tensei!**" Nagato called out. He pushed everything away from himself, yet, the grass stayed. "Then this is Genjutsu." Nagato faced Konan and saw her chakra flowing oddly. Now he knew for certainty that this was Genjutsu. That's when the third Genin from the Grass Village appeared. A small and meek boy. He had brown, messy and unkempt hair, dirt rubbed into his face and he wore the same cape of soil and grass that shrouded his body. A reed whistle hung around his neck. There were five whistle's stuck together, each one smaller than the last. He stood next to Koke.

"Good work, Shibafu," Koke said.

"Yeah, thanks," Shibafu said, as he looked nervously at the ground.

Yahiko and Kusayari were engaged in a dance of steel. Both katana and spear clashed against one another time and time again. The sharp sound of grinding steel echoed through the air. Kusayari was spinning the spear like a propeller, he made no wasted movements. Yahiko charged, and his enemy thrust his spear forwards. The orange-haired boy dodged out the way and brought his katana in from the side. Kusayari blocked the attack, pushed the sword away and spun his spear, bringing the tip of his weapon down onto Yahiko's head. Yahiko backed off evading the attack. Kusayari moved forwards, spinning his spear first around his neck then around his waist, the spear kept spinning and spinning. Yahiko saw no weak points. The Grass ninja had become a whirlwind of death.  
_How do I get past that? _Yahiko thought.  
The boy backed up several steps. He let himself take a quick look backwards. He saw Nagato and Konan standing still.  
_Must be Genjutsu. _Yahiko turned back to his enemy. He grabbed the handle of his sheathed sword. He had an idea, he just hoped it worked. Yahiko steeled himself, then charged forwards. He unsheathed his second sword and threw it at Kusayari with straight precision.  
_This guy will have to deflect the sword, when he does it'll give me an opening to attack._

Kusayari noticed the sword coming at him fast. He stopped spinning and straight away gripped his spear with both hands and swung hard to the side. The sound of clashing steel rang out. Kusayari had deflected the sword and Yahiko seized the opportunity he had created. He sent chakra to his feet to boost his speed and jumped towards Kusayari thrusting his sword forward. Kusayari saw the attack coming but he was too late to avoid it completely. He moved his body slightly to the side. Yahiko's katana pierced its target through the shoulder. Kusayari grunted, but didn't scream, in fact he hadn't said anything the whole time. Yahiko was wondering if the kid had a tongue.  
Even with a sword through his shoulder, Kusayari wasn't finished. He fell to the ground but brought his legs up and slammed them into Yahiko pushing his attacker back.

"Kusayari!?" Koke said in a panicked voice. Koke started running after his teammate. Yahiko hit the ground, rolled once and steadied himself. He reached into his back pouch and pulled out a single shuriken. He tossed it behind him.  
_Sorry about this buddy. _The shuriken was flying straight at Nagato, it curved slightly when it got closer to the boy and cut him lightly on the cheek. The ninja star kept flying forward until it stabbed the soft earth. Nagato felt a stinging pain pass through his cheek. Suddenly, the vines that were wrapped around his body vanished.  
_The pain from the shuriken broke the Genjutsu. Thanks, Yahiko.  
_Nagato's body was no longer frozen. Shibafu, the Grass Genin with the flute noticed the Genjutsu was broken when Nagato started moving. He grabbed his flute and brought it to his lips.

"**Hidden Grass Genjutsu: Lawn Paradise!**" The sound that came out of the flute, was cheerful and gleeful. It was high-pitched but pleasant to hear. Konan was caught in the Genjutsu first. Her surroundings changed from the Forest of Death to a long expanse of freshly mowed lawn. She could smell its sweet scent too. Konan felt happy, fear and doubt washed away, her face drew a blank expression.  
The sound continued to travel.

"**Wind Style: Gale Palm!**" Nagato clapped his hands and a great burst of wind ripped through the air. The howling wind blocked out the sound and smashed into Shibafu, lifting him off his feet. His cape of soil fluttered wildly through the air, leaving pockets of dirt scattered on the floor. Shibafu crashed into the ground a fair distance away. Nagato quickly made his way to Konan, put his hand to her shoulder and funnelled his chakra into her. Light returned to her eyes and her blank expression came alive again.

"Thank you," Konan said.

Koke had gone to his friend's aid. Kusayari grabbed the handle of the katana and yanked the blade out of him, then he dropped the sword on the ground. He moaned painfully. Kusayari grabbed his spear, he winced as he did so. Yet, he charged again. Without either of his katana, Yahiko was weaponless. Kusayari brought the spear down, Yahiko backed up and dodged the swing. Kusayari swung the spear horizontally, Yahiko backed up again, dodging the second swing. Kusayari prepared for another attack.

"**Shinra Tensei!**" Nagato called out from behind. Kusayari was sent flying, crashing into a tree trunk. As his body hit the tree he transformed into a wooden log. Kusayari substituted himself and appeared above Yahiko. Gritting through the throbbing pain in his shoulder he brought the spear down. Yahiko dodged rolled out of the way to avoid lethal damage but his leg received a shallow cut. When Kusayari spun his spear around for another swing, it was stopped by a floating square of white paper. The small paper shield pushed back, forcing the spear ninja to back away. Blood seeped from his wound.

"Kusayari, we have to get out of here and heal you," Koke stated. Kusayari replied with a nod. "Shibafu! We're leaving!" Kusayari leaned on Koke as his teammate reached into his pouch and took out a smoke grenade and threw it down. Kusayari stared directly into Yahiko's eyes and gave him a confident smile. The two boys were covered in a thick haze and vanished. Shibafu stood and played another tune on his flute. A tornado of leaves whipped around him and obscured The Rain Genin's view of him. He too had vanished from sight. Yahiko reclaimed his two katana and sheathed them after flinging the blood off. The three made their way to the injured Mist Genin who was still resting against the tree trunk.

"Thanks,"

"No problem," Yahiko replied. "What's your name?"

"Kasumi," The boy grunted out. Konan saw the bandages around the boy that were basically falling off him.

"Are those burns?" Konan took out a medical pack. "I've got a cream for burns let me help." Kasumi held his arm up.

"Don't bother, it's a waste on me." Kasumi lowered his arm and moaned. "Hav… Have you guys seen another kid from my group, he would have been wearing the same blue sash as me."

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan looked at each other sheepishly.

"Yeah, we found him," Yahiko said. "He died, sorry."

"Crap. So, I'm the last one, huh?" Nagato reached into his back pouch and took out the Heaven scroll belonging to Kasumi. Kasumi glanced over it. "Do you need it?"

"Excuse me?" Nagato asked, puzzled.

"The Heaven scroll, is that the scroll you need?"

"Yeah, but…" Nagato hesitated. "We can find another one."

"Take it," Kasumi said. "It would suit you, ninja, better."

"I know things look bad now, but if you let us help you, you can still pass this test and become a Chunin," Yahiko reassured the boy. Kasumi practically laughed before coughing hoarsely.

"You have to be a ninja to become a Chunin," Kasumi replied. The Rain Genin looked confused.

"What do you mean by that?" Yahiko asked.

"I'm not a ninja, neither were my partners." Kasumi could see the confusion on his helper's faces. "It's no secret that the Mist Village is corrupt, you guys know that?" Jiraiya had told his students about some of the goings-on in the 5 Great Nations when they were together. The stories about the Mist Village were the most horrific. Jiraiya had warned them never to go there. Not even as a last resort. "My village's system is corrupt, that includes our Mizukage and his ruling body. Anyone who says anything bad against the Mizukage and his rule gets punished. My parents were caught preaching anti-Mizukage statements. So, what did the Mist Jonin do? They didn't target my parents, they came for the children. My partners parents were also caught spreading 'Lies'," Kasumi scoffed at that. "We were kidnapped from our homes and taken here to participate in the Chunin exams even though we weren't ninja. Our ID's and all our paperwork were forged. Our clothes and headbands are all fake. We have weapons but not the training to use them. Our Jonin sensei, if you want to call him that was our kidnapper. They wanted us to die as punishment." Kasumi looked down. "They got what they wanted. Two dead. We were so happy when we heard the rules for the 1st exam. There was no way we would pass, I didn't write a single thing down. Next thing you know we pass and we're in here."

"That's…" Yahiko was trying to find the words. "Messed up, we're sorry."

"Don't worry about it. There's nothing you can do. Take the Heaven scroll. That's my reward to you for your help. You should leave, I'm weak and defenceless and others will come. You'll be in danger."

"We can't leave you here," Konan said.

"Yes, you can," Kasumi said looking thankful. "My time is up. I'm finished."

"At least let us help make a hiding place," Nagato pleaded.

"Yeah," Yahiko agreed. Nagato picked Kasumi up and moved him away from the tree. Yahiko drew one sword and covered the blade in his chakra. He stabbed the tree and began sawing the trunk in a circle. Nagato raised his hand.

"**Bansho Ten'in!**" A piece of the tree pulled itself away from the trunk. A shallow hole was created. Nagato put Kasumi inside. Konan created brown paper and formed a wall on the trunk. Hiding the Mist boy behind a curtain of paper. Kasumi thanked them. The three Rain Genin said their goodbye's and took off.  
Jumping from tree trunk to tree trunk, the three made their way to the centre of the forest. They had found both scrolls. Nagato was surprised how early they were able to do it. Although they didn't take the scroll, Nagato was happy with how they had acquired it. This is what he wanted, to help others. He thought back to Kasumi's story. That was what the thing he was fighting to stop. Now it was time to move on.  
From treetop to treetop they moved until Yahiko stopped suddenly on a tree. Nagato and Konan stopped too.

"Yahiko?" Nagato said worriedly. Yahiko, face as pale as white paper fell onto his side, unconscious.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Nagato and Konan found a small ditch that was hidden by a curtain of vines. A thick log was hanging on top of them, hiding them from sight. Konan poured some cool water onto a rag getting it wet. She twisted it, draining the excess water off then folded it neatly and placed it on Yahiko's forehead, whose headband had been removed.  
Yahiko was laying down, breathing harshly. Every deep breath he took was a struggle. His face was pale but the bags under his eyes were dark black. The cut on his leg left by Kusayari's spear was a scorching red. The wound was badly inflamed. Konan had taken out the anti-poison potion that Lady Tsunade had prepared for them in their medic pack. She tipped some onto a bandage and wrapped it around the wound. Yahiko was drenched in sweat.

"We have to help him. His fever is rising. This poison, whatever it is, isn't some basic venom. I don't think the anti-poison cream is going to work. It might help a little but it's far from a cure," Konan said.

"I know," Nagato was getting frustrated. "I'm not an expert on poison. I don't know how to heal him."

"Maybe we can…" Konan paused. Her face became contemplative. Thoughts were rushing through her head.

"Konan, what's wrong?" Nagato asked. Even though it wasn't the time to be thinking about such things, Konan couldn't get the thought of origami out of her mind. She felt like she was missing something. A gnawing feeling permeated through her body. A bunch of origami flowers popped into her mind. She remembered folding them. Learning how to do it from the book that Jiraiya brought for her.

"Jiraiya sensei, you sly fox," Konan whispered to herself.

"What happened?" Nagato questioned.

"The origami book Jiraiya sensei brought me. Sensei wasn't allowed to tell us what the stages of the Chunin exam would entail, so he gave us hints."

"What hints? How does this help us?"

"The origami book has hundreds of pages on how to fold different things. There are a lot of flowers and plants in that book. However, aside from telling you how to fold paper the book also gives you a brief description of each flower or plant. _Polemonium reptans _also known as Abscess root, it's a plant that's used to cure inflammation and fever. I think sensei was secretly trying to help us, he knew that even with the medicine pack we might be in trouble. If we can make multiple remedies from multiple plants maybe, we can get lucky. Look, it may not be much but it's all we've got. The proctor said there are all sorts of plants and flowers inside the forest, so there's gotta be something that can be used as medicine. Let me go gather some," Konan said. Nagato looked at the vulnerable Yahiko, still breathing hoarsely.

"Let me go instead," Nagato asked. "I don't know what to do to help him if I stay."

"Fine. Take these," Konan created a bunch of paper sheets. Then she used her Ninjutsu to create drawings of flowers on each slip. "Look out for these plants in particular. If I remember correctly these plants should help with poison, inflammation, and fever. Indian Sandalwood, White snakeroot, Sea buckthorn, Elderberries." There were some more plants that Konan listed, but once she was done Nagato took off running. Konan created more slips of paper and folded them with Ninjutsu into frogs. They leaped and hid in nooks and high vantage points. Scouting the area nearby. If anyone came near her and Yahiko she would know.  
Nagato didn't want to stray too far away from Yahiko, yet, he found none of the plants he was looking for in the area nearby. It was nearing the end of the first day. The sun was setting and casting an orange glow over the forest. The shadows of trees and plants stretched menacingly. He had to hurry.  
He looked at one of the images Konan gave him. A small plant with green stem and leaves but ending in tiny bushels of white strings. White snakeroot. Poisonous itself but can be used as medicine. He scanned each bush as he walked past them. Nagato took his necklace into his hand and an image of a healthy Yahiko became visible in the swirling mist.  
_That's the plan. _Nagato thought to himself.  
Off in the distance, there was a faint sound. A whistling. It was growing closer and closer. Nagato immediately recognised the sound as Shibafu's reed whistle. Something stirred inside the Rinnegan boy. Anger? Nagato thought back to their fight. He quickly ran up the closest tree and hid inside the leaves.  
Shibafu was walking along playing his reed whistle. A melancholic sound and slow. He was turning his head from side to side looking for something. His cape of grass-covered his body and swayed with every movement.  
Nagato jumped down from his hiding spot and took out a kunai. He landed behind Shibafu and placed the kunai in front of the boy's throat.  
Shibafu whelped, dropped his whistle and threw his hands up.

"Please don't kill me!" He pleaded.

"That whistle makes you stand out," Nagato said.

"You… You're the guy from earlier."

"Why should I spare your life? You killed that kid from the Mist Village."

"What kid? Wait, that wasn't me, that was Kusayari."

"Your part of the same team," Nagato started. "You're all at fault."

"No! It's not like that. You don't understand."

"I understand well enough."

Shibafu stayed silent for a couple of seconds.

"Wouldn't you do whatever it takes to protect the ones you love? Wouldn't you kill?"

Nagato hesitated to answer, "No, I wouldn't." Yet, Nagato had. As kids when Yahiko was attacked, Nagato protected his friend by killing the attackers. He wasn't conscious of it, but the guilt didn't disappear. He was guilty of the crime of killing and it haunted him daily.

"Look, I know what we did was wrong. But this exam, it's more important to us then you know. You protected those Mist ninja from us. I know that you guys have good hearts. Kusayari, he's not the same as he used to be. But, it's not for a bad reason. I can help you."

"Help me?"

"The poison, your friend is ill right?"

"How did…"

"Kusayari's spear is covered in snake venom. I know he was cut, I've got an antidote on me. I'll give it to you if you let me go. You know your friend injured one of mine, I'm just getting some medicinal ingredients to heal him. We're both in the same position." Nagato stood there thinking about what to do next. If the antidote was real, he needed it. It could have been a trap, yet, at the same time, he didn't seem like the type. "I'm alone, I promise." Nagato lowered his kunai. Shibafu turned around and his hand disappeared inside his dirt cloak. After ruffling around he produced a small vile with lavender liquid inside. He held it out and Nagato took it. "Pour the antidote on a cloth and place it over the wound. That should do the trick."

"Why are you helping me?" Nagato questioned.

"I told you, we're not bad people, just desperate. There's someone we need to help. You know, it doesn't matter."

"Tell me," Nagato asked. Shibafu looked at Nagato with a confused expression. Nagato wanted to help people as well, that's why he was here. He felt that Shibafu was telling the truth. He wanted to know his story. Shibafu sighed before speaking. He cast his gaze down to the ground.

"My parents were ninja." Nagato knew straight away from the way Shibafu phrased the sentence that his parents were gone. "So were Koke's parents and Kusayari's. The Leaf Village and the Grass Village are allies because they both reside in the Land of Fire. Wherever the Leaf goes the Grass follows. That includes following each other into war. Our parents were stationed in the Land of Rain." Nagato's heart dropped. For an instant, he felt guilty like he was responsible. Shibafu continued. "All of our parents were killed by a ninja, Hanzo of the Salamander." The name was enough to anger Nagato. Lots of the problems in the Rain Village were caused by that man. "Koke and I had nowhere to go without parents, but, Kusayari had a sister. She essentially adopted us and raised us, we've been with her and Kusayari for almost 2 years. She's a ninja too, or at least she was. A couple of months back she was injured during a mission and she hasn't recovered. She was our only source of income but because of her injury, she hasn't been on a mission for a long time. No missions mean no money. Kusayari, Koke and I did what we had to do. No one is going to hire a bunch of kids for work, the only job left to us was to become shinobi. However, the salary of a Genin doesn't pay well, even with three of us pooling in our money together. We can hardly afford food let alone rent on the house. We have even less money for medical treatment. Our only option now is to pass this exam and become Chunin. Becoming Chunin means getting more missions with higher payouts. Honestly, Koke and I don't care about becoming Chunin, were doing this for Kusayari and his sister. She did so much for us, so this is our way of repaying her." Shibafu stayed quiet for a while. Nagato couldn't help but think of Jiraiya sensei. He would do anything to repay the Sannin for saving him and his friends' life. He knew exactly how Shibafu felt.  
_Without Jiraiya, I could have been dead in a ditch somewhere.  
_"I know what Kusayari did was wrong, but he was just doing whatever it took to protect his sister. When Kusayari found out about his sister's injury something in him snapped. He's stopped speaking. No one knows why he just doesn't. You don't have to forgive him I'm only asking that you try to understand where he's coming from, where we're all coming from. Passing this exam is all we have left, we'll do whatever it takes." Shibafu waited a while. "That felt really good to get off my chest."  
Nagato could see himself in this boy's position, he understood and empathised with Shibafu.

"Thank you, for sharing that with me," Nagato said. "And I'm sorry for judging and interrogating you. Thanks for this." Nagato held up the antidote. He stuck his hands inside his pouch and took out a tub of healing ointment and a roll of bandages. "Take these for Kusayari."

"Thanks. I knew you were a good guy." Shibafu said. Nagato replied with a smile.  
That's when three shuriken flew towards Shibafu, coming from somewhere in the orange sky. The shuriken pierced Shibafu's coat. Luckily the coat made from dirt was fairly thick and the ninja stars dug into the brown mush without any damage. The shuriken took both Shibafu and Nagato by surprise. The Grass Genin yelped and started running away into the thick bushes. A voice came from a high place.

"I thought that grass jacket was a dumb idea. Turns out it's actually useful."

Nagato looked up towards the canopy and saw the top hat ninja who sat next to him during the written test squatting on a branch. Then from out behind a tree, a second top hat ninja popped out and started charging right at Nagato. The Genin reached Nagato very quickly. Nagato held onto the antidote in his palm, he couldn't allow the vial to be damaged. The boy also cursed the timing of this attack. Yahiko needed his attention more.  
The first attack was a right hook which Nagato blocked, the second attack was a left hook that Nagato ducked under and then backed off. A shadow fell over him, he looked up and saw the first top hat ninja attempting to jump him.

"**Shinra Tensei!**" Nagato called out and blasted the enemy in front of him back, then he immediately dodged rolled to the side. The second enemy landed his foot into the ground and it cracked slightly. He started a barrage of punches that Nagato either blocked or dodged. However, Taijutsu was never Nagato's forte. He felt himself getting slower while his attacker was getting faster and more precise. To make matter's worse, Nagato couldn't weave hand signs while holding the antidote. Nagato was focusing on the flurry of fists intensely. A fist flew towards Nagato's face which he raised his hand to block, but the fist stopped suddenly. It was a feint attack. A leg swept Nagato off balance and he dropped to the ground, smacking his head. A leg was coming down at Nagato's stomach. He sent chakra into his free hand and caught the foot, then pushed the guy away. Nagato rolled backwards and readied himself. All he saw was knuckles flying towards him quickly. Nagato was caught on the side of his cheek. He made a 360 turn and stumbled back. The Genin he was fighting backed away. His companion who had stayed back until now moved forwards, only now he was accompanied by a dozen clones. All the clones rushed Nagato at once. He jumped up towards a branch to get away from the stampede. One clone followed him up the tree and attacked him. Nagato stood still and the clone phased right through him. The rest of the clones herded around the tree but didn't move.  
_They're not Shadow Clones, thank god. It doesn't look like the clones were summoned for any offensive purposes. So, they wanted me to back off. Why attack me first then force me to run away?_

"You're Nagato, right?" The first attacker asked. "I'm Tejina. Clone boy is Nise."

"Clone boy, huh," Nise chuckled while shaking his head.

"Yeah, I'm Nagato," The Rinnegan boy confessed. He was staying on high alert.

"Thought so, I heard your name a couple of times," Tejina admitted. One of his hands was hidden behind his back. "I wanted to thank you for helping me."

"When did I help you?" Nagato questioned.

"During the written exam, you had that cheat sheet. I thought I was a goner until you held that paper." Tejina said. Nagato's eyes snapped open. He remembered back to the first exam and how he panicked when he lost the cheat sheet. He couldn't explain it when it happened.

"How did you…? I only looked away for a second," Nagato said, puzzled.

"In my spare time, I'm actually a practicing magician. I learned sleight of hand and a little pickpocketing. Plucked the paper right out of your hands." Tejina looked proud of himself when he said it. "I've gotten pretty good at stealing things from people without them noticing. For example, like how I stole these from you." Tejina revealed his hand that was hidden behind his back. Two blue Earth scrolls were present in his hand.  
Nagato was taken completely by surprise. He shoved his hand into his pouch and ruffled around. He felt one scroll inside. Now he knew that must be the Heaven scroll. Nagato's feelings of surprise had been mixed with a hint of rising anger. "Thanks, friend. Not sure why you have two of the same scroll." The scroll that Konan disguised transformed back into Its original form. "Ah, smart. Anyway, time for us to go." The clones of Nise all jumped up at once. They didn't attack, instead the clones bounced around. Half jumping up and down the other half jumping left to right, running across each other while surrounding Tejina and the real Nise. The clones created mayhem with their movement. Nagato's eyes scanned the area. It was impossible to discern the real bodies. After around ten seconds every clone immediately vanished from sight. The forest was quiet except for some chirping crickets. The sun was setting, and the sky was turning purple like a bruise.  
Nagato cursed under his breath. He opened his palm. _The antidote is safe. One thing at a time.  
_Nagato jumped away, making his way back to his poisoned friend.

Nagato swept aside a group of vines, going into the ditch.

"You're back," Konan started with a smile, but when she saw Nagato without any plants her smiled turned into a frown. "What happened? Where are the plants?"

"I've got something better, an antidote." Nagato showed his friend the vial. "Pour it on a cloth and place it over the cut."

"Where did you get it?"

"A long story, I'll tell you later, trust me." Konan hesitated for a moment but only for a moment. She took the vial and placed it on her lap. Then folded a small cloth into a neat rectangle. She poured the lavender potion onto the fabric and wrapped it around Yahiko's leg, on the cut. Yahiko's face was still pale and he was still breathing harshly.

"He's getting worse, I hope that antidote works," Konan said. "Here," Konan was holding some healing cream. She dabbed her finger inside and put some on her finger then wiped it on Nagato's cheek. "It's bruised. You got attacked?"

"Yeah," Nagato looked down embarrassingly. "I lost our Earth scroll. Both of them." Konan cupped Nagato's cheek.

"Don't beat yourself up about it. First, we heal him. Then we'll worry about that."  
Nagato leaned against the soft dirt and heaved a sigh. Konan started to change the cloth on Yahiko's forehead.

"Those Grass ninja we faced today, their parents were killed by Hanzo." That was the prominent problem Nagato found with Shibafu's story. Hanzo had corrupted the Rain village but at the same time, people from other villages were suffering because of him. A part of him felt like it was his fault.

"Were they the ones that attacked you?"

"No, some Genin from the Leaf did this." Nagato pointed at his swollen cheek. "I found Shibafu in the forest. Seems like Yahiko got a good hit on their teammate. He willingly gave me the antidote. They're not bad guys. They're just doing what it takes to survive. Just like us."

"That explains the antidote. You can't expect every Genin to be like Funsui. I suppose they're not all evil. Still, this is a test and it doesn't mean that we're less qualified to win."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Nagato closed his eyes and without knowing he drifted off to sleep.

Nagato began to stir. His eyes opened slowly. Then the ground began to shake. Nagato straightened up quickly. Dirt poured off his face and lips. He spat the dirt out of his mouth. There was a loud bang sounding off in the distance. Nagato looked to his friend. Yahiko was staring at him while he was lying down. He was covered in shadows. Now it had fully turned night, the ditch they were in was covered in blackness.

"It's been going on for a little while," Yahiko whispered.

"Yahiko, you… are you ok?" Nagato questioned.

"Thanks to you. Konan told me you got an antidote." Yahiko raised his fist. "Thanks, buddy."  
Nagato smiled and fist-bumped his friend.

"Don't sweat it." Nagato was surprised to see Yahiko awake. He looked a lot better.  
_That antidote works fast.  
_Konan handed him a bunch of nuts and berries.

"Eat, you need the strength," Konan said.

"Have you eaten?" Nagato asked Yahiko.

"Yep, a whole 5 berries. I'm full," Yahiko said sarcastically. Nagato laughed. Another bang rang out from the distance.  
Nagato drank some water, the cool liquid felt good going down his dry throat.  
Yahiko stood up. "We should get moving soon."

"Your leg…"

"Is fine," Yahiko finished the sentence. "Give me half an hour and we'll leave. Besides, someone has to fix your stuff up."

"Yeah, I know, sorry,"

"Ah, come on, I'm teasing, I know it's not your fault." Yahiko started fiddling with his bandages. Nagato and Konan laid back and took some time to rest up a bit more before moving out.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Nagato took a final drink of water before moving out. Konan was packing up all the cloth's she had used to treat Yahiko, erasing their presence from the ditch. Yahiko, looking and moving more healthily strapped his two katana onto his back.

"I would have assumed the best way to approach the scrolls was to take it from sleeping teams. But, with all the explosions going off, I'm gonna assume that we're not the only team thinking that." Yahiko said.

"We should try to avoid active teams while hunting sleeping ones," Nagato suggested.

"If there are any sleeping teams," Yahiko retorted.

The Rain Genin double-checked then triple-checked they had everything, then stepped cautiously out of their hiding spot. When they saw the area was clear. The paper frogs Konan had scattered around unfolded back into regular rectangles and flew back into her sleeves.  
They started running into the dark forest.  
There was a heavy stench of smoke wafting through the air. Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan were racing through the trees. The howling of wolves could be heard from the deepest and darkest parts of the night.  
_Aside from the other teams, there is probably an endless number of creatures that would equally like to kill us. _Nagato thought.  
The Rain Genin could hear the ringing and clashing of steel somewhere beyond the veil of leaves. They avoided that area. It was a bad idea to get involved in a fight between two teams if they didn't need to.  
The team slowed down a bit to get their bearings.

"How's your leg?" Nagato asked.

"Fine," Yahiko said as he slapped his thigh to prove himself. His cheeky grin spread across his face.

"Psst, Psst," The trees whispered. The three Genin looked around, seeking the source of the whisper. "Up here,"  
Looking upwards, there was a net suspended in the air. It was tied to the trunks of nearby trees and inside the net was a young Genin. The trapped boy was covered in shadows, because of that it had been difficult to notice. "Hey, can you guys help me out here? I was separated from my team."  
Nagato looked away scanning the area around him. Something felt off. His Rinnegan detected wisps of chakra flowing through the air, circling around the suspended net. It was then that he realised…

"Genjutsu!" Nagato called out. He said it more loudly then he wanted to. He didn't want to draw unnecessary attention. However, he couldn't dwell on what had happened because his attention had to be focused on what to do. The was a rustling of leaves from above. Two ninja attempted to get the drop on the Rain Genin. Nagato formed some hand signs then finished by clasping his hands together. "**Earth Style: Mud Wall!**"  
A large rectangle of dried mud erupted from the ground behind its caster. The two ninja smacked into the wall with a _thump _then dropped to the ground. Immediately after, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan sprung forwards, boosting their speed with chakra.

"Damn it!" The Genin who faked being in the net said under his breath. He formed a hand sign and the net vanished, he landed softly on the ground. "Come on." His two partners got up and gave chase.  
The three Genin rushed past tree after tree until their surroundings mixed into a colourless blur. They slammed their feet into logs releasing hollow sounds.

"Now that their coming after us we can set a trap for them," Yahiko said. "We know where they're coming from. We just have to plan and execute it really quickly." Immediately, Yahiko's face dropped. Surprise and slight annoyance twisted his facial features. They ran to the edge of a cliff. Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan stopped in front of a seemingly endless drop. It looked like a giant had feasted on the earth itself. Large, jagged rocks protruded out of the wall of earth, a thick canopy of black trees carpeted the ground. The top of the tower could be seen a long way away from the cliff. While the view was stunning, it had meant that the group had run straight into a dead end. The three turned around, their three pursuers had shown up a few seconds later.  
They all grinned happily. It could have been part of their trap, lead their victims to the edge of the cliff with nowhere to run. Regardless of if it was planned or not now Nagato and his teammates had no other choice than to fight. Taking a good look at his enemies with help from the glazed moonlight, Nagato saw that they were Genin from the Waterfall Village. Large arrows with untouching tips decorated their headbands.

"No choice now but to fight," Yahiko said as he took up a fighting stance. The night had become eerily quiet, the echoes of cicada's and crickets rose from the ground. The Waterfall Genin prepared themselves for an attack. However, before they could the sound of rustling and crunching leaves appeared. A white dot manifested out of the trees and dropped to the ground behind one of Team Nagato's pursuers. That Genin suddenly fell to his knees. What was once a white dot turned out to be another ninja. The newcomer grabbed the Genin by the collar and yanked him backwards. The other two Genin stood bewildered for a moment, then gathered themselves.  
One attacked him by throwing a punch, the ninja blocked the punch with his forearm then grabbed his attacker's arm and pushed it down. With both hands, the white ninja slapped his attacker's ears disorienting him. Then he jumped up while spinning and smashed his heel into the other boy's face, sending him tumbling away. The last of the Waterfall Genin came in from behind. The white ninja instantly ducked and extended his foot, tripping his enemy. As he was falling forwards, the white ninja grabbed the back of his head and slammed it into the earth. Knocking him out cold. Team Nagato's saviour heaved out a breath, then clapped his hands a few times to clean them.  
It was only now because the newcomer had stopped moving that Nagato got a good look at who it was. The white outfit he wore also helped to distinguish him. Makui, the Cloud Genin that supported Yahiko with his scuffle before the first exam. Makui took a second to marvel at his dispatch of the Waterfall Genin, then turned to meet Nagato's gaze, grinning wildly. His smile reminded Nagato of Yahiko's cheeky smile. A high-pitched squeal came from the shadows, followed by cracking leaves. Out of the darkness a boy in a wheelchair was revealed, pushing him was the female of the Cloud team. They stopped next to Makui.

"That was easy," The women said with a deadpan facial expression. Makui knelt beside the boys he had just knocked unconscious and sorted through their belongings.

"Aww, man. This is just not our day." Makui stood up holding a blue Earth scroll in his hand. "The fourth team we've beaten, and the fourth Earth scroll we've gotten." Makui threw the scroll away with complete disinterest. "Maybe, fifth teams the charm?" The three Rain Genin prepared themselves for a fight. After losing their initial Earth Scroll the team had been left with a Heaven scroll. That was the lucky part. Both teams had something to gain from this battle.  
Makui reached for the large shuriken he wore on his back. He slid his hand through the hole and grabbed the top. He drew the giant star and held it to the side, then started to spin it around his hand. "Kakui! We're going with the same strategy, leave these guys to me and protect Arukui."  
Nagato turned to Yahiko wearing a frown.

"I don't like being underestimated," Yahiko said.  
_This kid has to be crazy to take us three on one. _Nagato thought. The Rinnegan boy looked at Arukui. The Cloud Genin sat in his wheelchair looking at his surrounding environment. Worry for his teammate seemed to be the last thing on his mind. Nagato knew if the fight was going to be three versus one, he and his friends had the obvious advantage. Still, an inch of doubt crept throughout his body.  
Thanks to his Rinnegan, Nagato saw Makui pour his chakra into the shuriken. A blue aura surrounded the metal star and the fight began.  
Makui threw the Shuriken forwards with a huge grin on his face. The ninja star soared through the air, but, nothing special happened. It flew straight ahead, not necessarily targeting anyone. Nagato had noted that behind them was a cliff. The shuriken would fly past them and drop into the forest below. This was a terribly thought out attack by his enemy. Nagato and Yahiko slid to their sides allowing the shuriken to go right past them and fly off the edge of the cliff.  
"I'm going in," Yahiko said right before he started to charge. Nagato just stared. The doubt in him stirring stronger. There was something more going on here. Something he wasn't getting.  
Makui raised his hand in the air, held it there for a couple of seconds and then jerked his hand back quickly.  
Yahiko was about halfway to his enemy. It was his intense focus on the boy in front of him that left him exposed from behind.  
A sharp whirling sound sped past Nagato. The moonlight reflected off something metal for an instant and that was all it took for Nagato to react.

"Yahiko, look out, behind you!" Nagato called out. Yahiko stopped dead in his tracks. The shuriken flew at his back with immense speed, faster then a normal shuriken would move.  
"**Shinra Tensei!**" Nagato sent a repulsive wave towards the shuriken. The large star had been pushed away from it's intended target. It toppled into the shadows of the trees. Makui stared at Nagato with enlarged eyes.

"That was awesome, dude," The Cloud Genin said with obvious amazement. "However, I'm pretty awesome myself." Makui swung his hand through the air as if it was a sword. The shuriken froze itself mid-air, spun around a few times until it was flat, started rotating again and then flew towards Yahiko.  
Now it was Nagato's turn to stare with amazement.  
_He's controlling the shuriken with his chakra. _He thought.  
Yahiko backflipped backwards and the shuriken stabbed itself into the ground. Makui waved his hand upwards and the shuriken jumped out of the ground towards Nagato.

"**Shinra Tensei!**" Nagato pushed the shuriken away only for it to curve around and charge him again. Due to the five-second interval, he had to wait before he could recast the Jutsu, Nagato had no choice but to drop to his stomach to allow the shuriken to speed past him. Yahiko resumed his attack on Makui.  
Using the power of his chakra alone, Makui recalled the shuriken back to him. It chased Yahiko's back. The orange-haired boy backflipped over the shuriken. The metal star returned to its owner for a second, until Makui sent it flying at Yahiko again. Drawing one of his swords to block the attack, Yahiko was knocked down as the force of the spinning shuriken turned out to be more powerful than his block.

"Don't forget about me!" Konan shouted. "**Paper Shuriken!**" Konan launched a dozen white shuriken at Makui. Recalling his weapon back, Makui levitated his shuriken in front of him as a shield. Konan's paper ninja star's bounced off of Makui's metal one. After her small shuriken were deflected Konan proceeded to create a large ring out of paper and launched it at Makui, similarly to how he would use his weapon. Both weapons clashed against one another, but ultimately Konan's paper ring was sliced in half as Makui's shuriken flew straight at the girl.  
While Konan could reinforce her paper creations with her chakra to drastically improve their density and cutting power, Makui could do the same thing with his already impressively strong steel shuriken.  
Yahiko, now recovered from his fall, placed himself in front of Konan, sword at the ready and blocked the shuriken once again. Pouring his chakra into the blade to increase its defence. This time Yahiko was not knocked down.  
Nagato also recovered.  
_Come on, Nagato, think. _Nagato thought. _I didn't think he could do it, but he's actually keeping all three of us at bay. Still, there must be some way of stopping his Jutsu? _Nagato watched as his friend strained to block the shuriken. He saw the chakra swirling around the giant ninja star.  
_That's how he's controlling the shuriken, with his chakra. But there has to be more to his Jutsu then that. Is it possible, _Nagato began a thought, _He possesses a Kekkei Genkai.  
_When the Rain Genin trained under Jiraiya back in the Rain Village, Jiraiya taught them about the special abilities granted by Kekkei Genkai. Nagato had the ability to pick up elemental Justu very quickly, much to Yahiko's annoyance. He found out later that was a perk of the Rinnegan. However, even nature Kekkei Genkai was off-limits to the Rinnegan bearer. In fact, the Rinnegan itself was a Kekkei Genkai.  
When discussing nature transformations Jiraiya informed his students about all of them, at least that he knew off.  
One of the nature transformations was the Magnet Release. The ability to turn one's chakra into a Magnetic force, then control objects through magnetism.  
_Makui possesses the Magnet Style. _Nagato surmised. _He can freely alter the attractive and repulsive forces of the shuriken, changing its direction mid-flight. _It wasn't so dissimilar to Nagato's own Shinra Tensei and Bansho Ten`in.  
_If the shuriken has his chakra flowing in it then that's how he's controlling it. Then what would happen if I…_

"**Bansho Ten'in!**" Nagato shouted. Makui's shuriken was pulled away from Yahiko's defence as it flew straight at Nagato. Makui's attention snapped to his weapon, he wore a face of surprise.  
Nagato had to move quickly for his plan to work.  
Nagato deftly caught the shuriken, slipping his arm through the hole. Then he switched to the power of the **Preta Path. **The Rinnegan bearer sucked the chakra out of the shuriken and into his own body.  
Makui jerked his hand back expecting his weapon to return to his calling, however, it didn't move. Makui swung his hands a few more times just for good measure. Still, nothing.

"What the hell! That's unfair," Makui said incredulously. Finally, it was Nagato's time to grin. Yahiko, realising that the shuriken wasn't moving continued his attack.

"Nice work, Nagato," Yahiko called as he once again started to charge at the dark-skinned boy.

"Do you need some help now, Makui?" Kakui asked of her ally. Her face was continuously deadpan.

"Nah," Makui regained his composure. His eyes narrowed onto Yahiko and once again he spread his lips into his massive cheeky grin. "I still got this." Makui punched his left palm with his opposite fist, then started to form hand signs.  
Yahiko ran at Makui with his katana in hand. The plan wasn't to kill the Cloud Genin, he just wanted the scroll they had. He didn't want to nor plan to kill anyone. He felt as if his opponent was the same. Yahiko didn't sense any bloodlust or rage coming from the boy. It was possible he was hiding the emotions, but he would have to be extremely skilled if he were. While Makui was controlling the shuriken, Yahiko never thought himself to be in any real danger, although a spinning shuriken is still dangerous nonetheless. Besides, he stuck up for him when Funsui got aggressive. Both teams were just doing what they had to, to pass this test.  
When Yahiko got close to his enemy he jumped into the air, performed a front flip and readied his blade for contact.  
Makui finished his sequence of hand signs and inhaled.  
"**Ninja Art: Hidden Cloud Jutsu!**" Makui called out. A dense, pale-white fog erupted from his mouth.  
Yahiko swung his blade down hoping to catch the dark-skinned boy's shoulder, unfortunately, his blade hit empty air. Within a couple of seconds, the entire cliffside had been consumed by a white mist. Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan's clothes started to moisten from the water in the chakra created clouds. For Nagato, the entire area had become a blue haze. The clouds were conjured by chakra and the Rinnegan saw chakra. The effect was almost blinding for the boy. However, there was an upside to the clouds being chakra. They could be absorbed.  
Nagato raised his hands.

"**Preta Path!**" Nagato whispered. The clouds were vacuumed into Nagato's two open palms. The cliffside was cleared almost as instantly as it was covered. Makui became visible again until he pulled out a scroll from his pocket and opened it, spewing forth a smoke cloud. A second later, another large shuriken was propelled through the air. Catching the moonlight, it glinted as it spun. It was flying straight towards Nagato. From the corner of his eye, he saw a white blur pass him and ram into the shuriken. It was a large paper shuriken. Nagato turned to Konan to give his appreciation. When he did, Konan's face was caught mid-scream.

"Nagato!" Konan howled. She was pointing to something. Nagato turned back around to see the shuriken still flying towards him. At the same time, he saw a second shuriken flying away from him with Konan's paper star falling to the ground. That made Nagato understand.  
_The Shadow Shuriken Jutsu._ Nagato thought. There were always two. He raised his hand in an attempt to push it away, but the boy misjudged the speed and velocity. One sharp edge of the Shuriken caught Nagato in the left shoulder. Blood spat out of his body. He heard his name being yelled by both Yahiko and Konan. Yet, it felt like the screams were coming from kilometres away. Nagato's shoulder flared with horrible pain. He fell back on his buttocks and let himself scream.  
Yahiko's anger skyrocketed. He lunged forwards. Makui's first shuriken lay on the ground flat. Yahiko stabbed the ground where the hole in the middle of the shuriken was. With his feet, he kicked and lifted the shuriken up by spinning it around his katana. Withdrawing his katana from the ground he whirled his sword around him and launched the shuriken back at the Cloud Genin. Makui swiped his hand, and the steel star courteously avoided the boy.

"Makui! You dumbass!" Kakui called out. Without realising, Makui had accidentally moved the incoming shuriken out of his way but sent it moving towards his wheelchair-bound comrade. Arukui's face drained of colour as he watched what was unfolding. Makui raised his hand hoping to gain control of the shuriken and stop it. Kakui withdrew her own small Tanto blade from her back.  
Then suddenly the shuriken stopped in mid-air. Like time had frozen.

"Close call, Makui." Kakui said.

"That, errr, wasn't me," Makui said, his voice hinting surprise.  
The ninja star that had frozen flew away quickly. Everyone followed its trajectory until Nagato lifted his arm up and caught the shuriken with his free hand. The red-haired boy was standing, panting heavily, shuriken still lodged in his shoulder. He dropped the shuriken he had caught. Sticking his hand on the other shuriken he screamed but pushed through the pain and pulled the shuriken out, letting it drop to the ground.

"Konan!" Nagato heaved out. His face wincing and twisting. Konan summoned a group of paper sheets and formed them into a large square, then she had them rest on Nagato's wound like a make-shift bandage. The white paper immediately turned red, absorbing the seeping blood.  
The three cloud ninja all stared in surprise. Unmoving, not exactly sure what to do next. Yahiko took his chance again. He charged at Makui and the dark-skinned boy returned his attention back to his opponent. Makui flexed his fingers to recall one of the shuriken back to his body to act as a shield against Yahiko's sword swing. The shuriken pushed Yahiko back, but he returned for another strike. The shuriken spun around Makui's body like a planet in orbit and blocked the second swing.  
"I think it's time to get up close and personal," Nagato said. His shoulder seared with pain, but he would have to push past it.  
"**Bansho Ten'in!**" Nagato called. This time instead of pulling the shuriken, he went straight for the source. Makui felt the air around him change, then abruptly he was yanked away from his spot. Like a hundred hands had gripped every part of his body and pulled him. As Makui flew through the air, he realised that this was the signature Jutsu of the guy he had struck with his shuriken. He may have caught him with this Jutsu, but Makui would not go down that easily.  
Even while he was being pulled through the air, Nagato could see Makui smiling. Like he was on a carnival ride. Makui and Nagato crashed into each other, tumbling into the ground, rolling closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. Makui was on top of Nagato, he pinned down Nagato's arms with his knees. Makui had one fist raised.

"Surrendering?" Makui asked. Nagato answered by swinging his legs up and wrapping them around his opponent's neck and pulling the boy backwards. When his arms were no longer pinned down, Nagato threw himself forwards. Pain tore throughout his shoulder as blood dripped out of the paper. Now Nagato had Makui pinned down.

"Not a chance," Nagato replied. "Hand me your scroll and were done here."

"Alright, alright, here." Nagato released one of the boy's arms. The Rinnegan boy watched carefully, waiting for any move that would be considered an attack. Makui waved his hand quickly.  
Nagato didn't need to see, he knew that there was a shuriken flying at the back of his head right now. Nagato gripped Makui's vest with both hands and turned him over. Nagato purposefully let himself be on the bottom. Makui's brow furrowed. He raised his hand and the weapon stopped inches from the back of his head.  
While Makui was preoccupied with his weapon, Nagato had used **Bansho Ten'in **to pull the pouch off of the cloud ninja and into his hands. Nagato reached into the pouch and took out a blue Earth scroll.  
"Hey! That's not yours." Makui said. Nagato threw the pouch at Makui's face. He caught it with one hand. Nagato threw a punch, Makui blocked it but was pushed backwards off of Nagato. The Cloud Genin took out a smoke bomb and threw it down. Grey smoke exploded out of the little round ball.  
Both Genin engulfed by the smoke started coughing.  
Then, Nagato heard a loud bang. He knew from his time in the Rain Village that it was a bomb. His ears rung as other sounds were blocked out.  
What's next was worse.  
The ground beneath Nagato's feet started to move and Nagato was sliding downwards.  
The cliffside had been destroyed. Nagato was on the edge when it happened. He tried to run up the falling chunks of rock, but he wasn't quick enough. He heard his name being screamed out by his friends as his body plummeted to the ground. Nagato held onto the Earth scroll as he fell, looking around him. A fierce wind whipped his face and his clothes rampaged wildly.  
That's when he saw a white robe flapping angrily beside him. Makui, however, it didn't look like he was moving. His limbs flailed loosely. It looked painful.  
_He's not going to survive if he falls like that._

"**Bansho Ten'in!**" Nagato called out. Focusing on Makui's falling body, the dark-skinned boy was pulled into Nagato and the Rain Genin wrapped his free arm around the boy's waist. Holding on to him tightly.  
Weaving hand-signs was the best way to properly control and execute a Jutsu. That way one could willingly regulate the amount of chakra in the Jutsu and thus determine its power and size.  
Nagato, falling with increasing speed. Holding onto another boy, trying to keep him alive did not have that luxury. He haphazardly formed a one-handed sign with his scroll hand, built up chakra in his chest as quickly as he could. "**Water Style: Water Wall!**" When Nagato breathed he expelled a wave of water at the ground. The force of the Jutsu slowed him down by a little bit, but the landing was still going to hurt. Nagato concentrated on the Jutsu as best he could. Pain in his chest and fear in his heart threatened to shroud his focus. He formed the water into a bubble, but before he could actually create the full sphere. He, and Makui together, crashed into the half-circle. The impact knocked the wind out of him. They spiralled into the bubble together and Nagato swallowed a heap of water. Sometime in the turmoil, Nagato had let go of the Cloud ninja. The pain in his shoulder had become excruciating. The water in his chest left him unable to breathe properly.  
At some point, after the landing, darkness had taken hold of Nagato.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The world was darkness. Empty and non-existent. Until little white spots appeared like an open night sky. Each star grew larger and brighter until everything became a burning white. His eyes tried to open but the world was too bright, so they shut themselves closed. His eyes twitched for a moment, then tried again. They opened halfway before closing again. Each time his eyes opened they got wider and wider and each time more colours were introduced to him.  
Nagato stared up at the ceiling, which was a dark, dull rock. His right arm tickled strangely. Lifting his arm up, a trail of ants had journeyed across his limb.  
He shot up at once.  
Bad Idea.  
His head, stomach, and chest instantly flared with pain. He clutched his side only for his forearm to burn. Once again, his vision was blasted with whiteness. Moments later when his body was relieved of its pain momentarily, Nagato wiped the ants off his arm. After clearing his flesh from the critters, he realised the bandages wrapped around his hands, legs, and chest. He looked at himself for a few seconds then scanned the area around him. It looked like he was in a cave. There was a small bonfire made, feeble embers were all that remained.  
Something in Nagato just clicked, it was like having an epiphany. Flashes of memory buzzed in and out. He remembered the cliff and Makui. He remembered the falling and bits and pieces of the landing. His body began to ache as if his body remembered to feel pain. Looking around again, he saw a single kunai stabbed into the wall, there was writing carved right next to it.  
_If the Kunai starts shaking on its own it means I'm close. Makui.  
Did he patch me up? _Nagato thought.  
The pain through his body rose up now and then. His mind was hazy although he remembered most things. But all those things were a distraction.  
Nagato turned to look behind and saw the roaring jaw of a fierce bear. Its teeth bare and threatening. Nagato yelped loudly and backed up pushing himself as far away from the predator as much as he could. His arms, chest, and stomach seared with pain.  
There came the sound of rattling steel. Nagato turned his attention away from the bear for an instant, not wanting to be made bear lunch, or dinner. Time was muddled for the boy, but he knew it was sometime during the day. The kunai shook from side to side. Nagato could see the blue aura of chakra coating the weapon.  
Turning back to the bear he expected it to attack him, but it was unusually tame.

"Ahh, probably should have turned him around. Big guys heavy, ya' know." A voice said.

Nagato turned expecting to see Yahiko stroll in with his goofy but friendly grin. Making Nagato's worry disappear.  
The big, goofy grin was present, but not Yahiko.  
Makui walked in his white teeth glowing as he smiled happily. Nagato, without even being aware of it until after it happened felt himself begin to calm down. His worry had somewhat quietened. Something about that smile put him at ease. It reminded him of safety, friendship, family and most of all peace.  
The kunai stopped shaking.  
"I had to kill the poor guy so we could move in," Makui started. "Made me almost wet my pants when first saw him. Dangerous and very territorial. But, I couldn't leave us exposed out in the open, that would have been dumb ya' know." There was a puddle of blood beneath the bears head belonging to the beast.  
Nagato's mind was processing too many things at once.  
The pain in his body, the flashes of memory bursting into his mind every now and again, the cave, the dead bear, Makui standing in the cave's entrance. Nagato leaned forwards and threw up.  
"Yep, ok, now it's my turn," Makui said as he looked away from the gross display. Heaving heavily, Nagato spat at the ground. "Here." Nagato took a cloth and a water cantina that was offered to him by Makui. First, he wiped his mouth then used some water to wash out the foul taste.

"Thanks," Nagato said leaning back against the hard stone wall.

"It's nothing special but I brought breakfast." Makui knelt next to the campfire. Nagato watched as shuriken were removed from the heads of lizards.

"Breakfast? So, it's morning?" Nagato asked.

"Around there," Makui replied. The Cloud Genin brought in six lizards. Two of them were brown and yellow in colour.  
Before Jiraiya Sensei, the Rain orphans went each day scarce of food. They either had to steal food, scavenge what they could from leftovers, or find small animals that could be caught easily. Rats, frogs, lizards, fish, the occasional bird if any of the kids could catch it. Back then they weren't experts in shuriken and kunai, so using tools was out of the questions. However, because of those times, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan had become knowledgeable about animals, which ones were safe to eat and those that weren't.

"The brown lizards are poisonous," Said Nagato.

"Are you sure?" Makui asked.

"Yep," Makui looked over Nagato for a second, then picked the two lizards up and moved them out the way. Twisting his face into one of disgust. "These ones?" Makui asked.

"Safe," Makui began skewering the lizards and placed them on top of a makeshift spit made from twigs to cook them. He sighed heavily.  
His demeanour changed; the happiness vanished from his face.  
"I'm sorry, about your shoulder," Nagato was taken aback by the apology, it had come from his competition.

"Don't worry about, seriously. There's something different about you. During our fight, even with all the attacks, I never once sensed a feeling of malice from you. You were never aiming to kill."

"Funny, I was going to say the same about you. Except when I stabbed you in the shoulder, I angered your friend."

"Don't worry about him, he's cool. Your teammates are safe with Yahiko and Konan. I'm sure they're looking for us right now."

"About that, thanks for saving me. After the cliff, I blacked out. When I awoke on the ground, I knew you had saved me. You could have let me die, taken the scroll, past the test. You put your own life at risk to save mine. That takes some serious guts ya' know."

Nagato stared at the ground.  
"I'm never going to stand back and just watch when someone's in trouble." Nagato took a second to remember his parents and how helpless he felt when they…  
"Peace. That's why I'm going to be a ninja, Yahiko, and Konan together with me. All we've known is war, destruction, loneliness, pain. The Hidden Rain Village is in constant strife, the rain is the village's tears. Endless. The old generation failed us it's time for us to take matters into our own hands. We will shape the land; we won't live in his world anymore. I will create peace in the Rain."

"The leader of the Rain Village is called Danzo, right?" Makui asked.

"Hanzo," Nagato corrected.

"Ah, my sensei's been deployed to the Rain village a few times. He says it's bad." Makui's gaze wandered around the cave. "This test is great for improving our skill and elevating us to the next step of being a ninja. Yet, there's something sad about it. We make friends during these tests, but one day in the future we may meet on the battlefield and be forced to fight one another, to kill one another. That's not what being a ninja is for me, ya' know." Makui's eyes drooped lowly as if to look inside himself. He was remembering his past.  
"My father was a ninja, A Jonin in fact, one of the best in the Cloud Village. But he was nothing like the other ninja around him. No matter what he was doing, no matter where he was, my dad was always smiling and cracking jokes. Even seconds away from death his smile never left his face. In fact, he died smiling. Some of the other Jonin liked my father, a lot of others didn't, they believed he wasn't taking the Great War seriously, but they kept taking him along on missions because nobody could deny his skill. He told me once that one of the greatest tragedies of war wasn't always what it did to others, but what it did to oneself. He said it forced you to use your rage and anger, it forces you to become the thing that you swore you would never become. War trains you to hate corrupts you into thinking that only your right and everyone else is wrong, because of that you keep killing, and killing and killing. More and more, there's never an amount that's going to be enough." Makui paused for a moment. "My father told me to always smile, even against an enemy, that way you show them you're not like them. You show them the strength of your conviction. The power to resist the hate, the power to spread peace and happiness. He was killed by a ninja from the Leaf Village, supposedly he was a legend throughout all the lands."  
There was a moment where Jiraiya entered Nagato's mind. The legendary Sanin. One of three legendary Shinobi. Nagato's mentor and the closest thing he had to a father now. Was it possible that his sensei was responsible?

"He was called The White Fang of the Leaf." Nagato made a mental sigh of relief. "I don't hate any of the Leaf Ninja though, I can't, that would disrespect my father's life. It was war, it was bound to happen. His last wish was that I don't change and that I keep loving life. Now that my dad's gone, it's my turn to share that message in his place. I'll continue to smile and make jokes the way he did. His Ninja Way lives on through me."

_He knows, _Nagato thought, _He understands pain. However, he knows that being consumed by it won't solve anything. _The strength of Makui's conviction was powerful, moving, inspiring_. _He was, Nagato realised, very similar to himself. Nagato and his friends weren't becoming ninja to fight. No! It was to defend, protect, change. He had discussed the same thing with Yahiko before. They wouldn't kill anyone, they wouldn't change themselves, they wouldn't become Hanzo's weapons.  
However, deep down, in a dark, angry, resentful part of Nagato's soul there laid buried a subconscious rage. After the incident with his parents, Nagato had killed the intruders. He had never experienced such honest and pure anger until then. He had broken his own rule once.  
He had hated. He had changed. He caused death.  
What scared the boy the most was that he believed that, that rage had never left him. His parents were killed by Leaf Ninja. Although he cared for Jiraiya deeply not every shinobi was like his sensei. There was a part of him that could never forgive the Leaf for what they did. All he could do was move forward. Be better.  
That was in the past, now he had to look towards the future. He had to make sure no one would become like him, feel the way that he felt.  
Nagato would always be peace. He would never be _pain._  
Nagato raised his fist towards Makui.

"Let's make a deal. We promise to pass this test, we become Chunin, hopefully, one-day Jonin then we change the world in our own way."  
Makui stared at the raised fist for a few seconds then he spread his lips into his cheeky grin and fist-bumped Nagato. Nagato made his own cheeky grin.

"Deal," Makui agreed. "First, breakfast." He picked up two lizards, brown and crispy, steam pouring out of the cooked animal and handed them to Nagato. They started eating in silence. The cooked lizard was chewy but not altogether unpleasant or maybe it was because Nagato was somewhat used to the taste. Makui's face contorted into disgust a few times while he was eating.  
"I thought about cooking the bear, but I already felt bad about killing it I didn't want to disrespect it by eating it in its own home." Nagato looked at the bears drooping and bloodied jaw and found himself feeling sorry for it as well. It was only protecting its home.  
"So, ah, I don't want to seem rude," Makui started, "Can I ask? What's with the ah…" Makui was waving his skewered lizard around his face.  
Nagato was briefly confused watching his new friend wave his food around, then it occurred to him what he was asking.

"Oh! It's called the Rinnegan," Nagato started his explanation, "Honestly, I don't really know that much about it. I was born with it I think."

"Rinnegan? Rinnegan?" Makui said repeatedly like how a child repeats a word to pronounce it better." "Was that how you were doing the push and pull thing?" Makui asked. Nagato nodded.

"Yeah, not so dissimilar to your Magnet Release."

"I don't have Magnet Release," Makui claimed. Nagato stared at Makui intensely. The more he stared the more Makui look guilty like the lie was unravelling. Then he heaved a heavy sigh, "Is it that obvious?"

"To my eyes, yes. I can see chakra, I noticed it coating your shuriken and figured out that's how you were controlling it. Your power and mine are both Kekkei Genkai."

"Well, there's all my secrets exposed. That's why I have this," Makui motioned to his purple tattoo under his left eye. "People think it's a horse-shoe…"

"But it's a Magnet," Nagato finished the sentence, chuckling as he said it.

"Ya' know, I was trained by a famous Jonin, Toroi of the Magnet Style. He's taught me everything I know but I've still got a long way to go."

"You and me both," Nagato admitted. Jiraiya had told Nagato about the Rinnegan during their training. At least as much as Jiraiya knew because even the Sannin wasn't sure what the Rinnegan was truly capable of. The Rinnegan belonged to the Sage of Six Paths. What that meant, the Rain orphan didn't know.  
Nagato wasn't just taught about the Rinnegan he was warned. His initial training with the Shinra Tensei and Bansho Ten'in had been, to put it mildly, destructive. He picked up elemental Jutsu easily and quickly. His skills had grown rapidly, especially in contrast to his two friends.  
Still, Jiraiya had warned him to be careful. Not knowing what the Rinnegan was truly capable of was dangerous. Even now, during the Chunin Exam, Nagato was cautious with the Jutsu he used.  
Nagato didn't want to lose control.

"I think we should move on," Makui suggested. The Cloud Genin chewed the last of his lizard. Nagato agreed and finished his breakfast. They should try to find their teammates as quickly as possible. "Are you gonna be okay?"  
Nagato's body still hadn't 100% recovered. His body still ached in places. However, the pain had subsided a few notches down from when he first woke up.  
"I used some of the healing medicine you had in your pouch," Makui admitted.  
The medicine that Lady Tsunade had gifted them through Jiraiya Sensei.

"Yeah, I'm feeling better," Nagato said, "Besides, we need to move on, we can't stay here forever." That medicine really works wonders. Both Genin started to pack up their stuff quickly.

"Here," Makui said, throwing something small and cylindrical at Nagato. Nagato caught it without knowing what it was. Once in his hands, he looked it over and saw the Blue Earth Scroll Nagato had taken from the fight before falling off the cliff.  
"You saved my life, so as my thanks you deserve this. Don't tell Kakui I gave it to, Ya' know. She's gonna kill me. If she asks, I lost it during the fall." Nagato nodded.  
Once they had packed up all their belongings they took off. It was now that Nagato realised that one full day had passed which meant that there were only 4 days left.  
_A lot has happened in just one day, damn. _Nagato thought. First Yahiko was injured, now he was. They skipped along the high branches in the canopy.  
There was no point going back to the cliff, no one was going to remain there. Nagato was imagining Yahiko panicking, scratching his head in frustration. Nagato took some comfort in knowing that his friend was worried about him.  
As they travelled, Makui started talking again.  
"So, err, a little while back I ran into one of your friends."  
Nagato was slightly confused by the statement. Had he meant Yahiko and Konan because it was obvious that he had met the three Rain Genin together?  
"I think his name was Funsui," Makui strained hard to remember the name.

"Oh," That was all Nagato got out. His happy demeanour left him almost straight away after hearing the name.

"Yeah, he's a real bundle of anger that one. My team and I ran into him during the beginning of the test. We had a small scuffle, but we backed out of the fight." Makui explained.  
Nagato imagined Funsui raging around the forest. Then he thought of Arukui, Makui's wheelchair-bound friend and how he would have fought in a battle. "Seems to have a grudge against you," Makui continued, "He was asking us if we had come across your team, especially your orange-haired friend."  
Nagato thought back to the instance when Funsui had grabbed Yahiko's shirt.  
_He's looking for us, what a surprise. _Nagato thought, not surprised in the slightest.  
But now a sliver of panic pierced Nagato's calmness. Now that he knew that Funsui was looking for them, he wanted to find Yahiko and Konan before he did.

"You remember our conversation before about not letting anger and revenge change us." Makui nodded in agreement. "Funsui and probably his whole team are on the opposite spectrum from us. They're driven by hate." Nagato paused for a moment. "I'd hate to see what they're planning on doing during these tests," Nagato whispered. It was almost like an unconscious passing thought. He thought back to the dead Mist villager that Yahiko had dragged out of the river.

"Gotcha," Makui said "Still, a word of warning. That guy is strong." Nagato took note of that. Even with all the teams participating, and even though he would rather avoid it Nagato knew that he would have to fight Funsui at some point during the Chunin exams.  
For now, as the two Genin raced along the treetops, Nagato would push that thought aside. Instead, he asked Makui the question that he had wanted to ask for quite a while now.

"Hey!" Nagato called. Makui grunted in response. "Your friend, Arukui, I've been wondering ever since I first saw you guys. How does he fight?" Makui stayed silent for a couple of seconds while Nagato was thirsting for the answer.

"Hmm," Makui's lip curved into a sly smile, "You might have exposed all my abilities but Arukui is my best friend, I'm not gonna explain his powers ya' know. You'll find out what he's capable of soon enough. I will tell you this though. Do not for a second underestimate him. Despite what you might think he's powerful." Makui said.  
Nagato couldn't help but smile.  
_Loyal to the very end. _Nagato thought. He thought about Yahiko and Konan, more specifically he thought about Makui's teammates asking them about Nagato's abilities and Yahiko repeating the same words to Kakui and Arukui.  
Nagato discreetly took his necklace- the gift from Jiraiya- into his hands. Like all the previous times he saw a happy image of himself with his best friends.  
There wasn't a specific destination that Nagato and Makui were headed towards, they traversed around the forest. Not sure where to go or how to get there. So many places looked the same as others, it was hard to tell if they were not just going in circles. They passed the time with small talk, getting to know each other a bit more. Nagato felt as if he had known Makui for years and not for hours. Makui talked about his life in the Cloud Village. Nagato mentioned, cautiously, about his life with Yahiko and Konan, he did, however, spare Makui the sad stories of poverty and death that the boy had experienced daily. Nagato felt like it made his life sad, which it was compared to the happy lives of others. He would never forget those moments. But there were moments of his life that were fun and hopeful, and he liked to dwell on those memories more.  
So they continued to talk about everything, and they continued to travel everywhere. In the middle of their conversation, while Makui was talking about the great power of the Third Raikage, Nagato heard a whistling sound. The sound grew louder extremely quickly and Nagato immediately knew what the sound was. Makui went silent, he noticed it too. Makui jumped upwards, gripping a thin tree trunk with his hands then flipping his body forwards until his feet landed flatly on the trunk. Nagato stopped then backed-up, jumping away from the sound. After both Genin had made their moves a kunai knife had introduced itself to the world and stabbed a trunk with a hollow _thud. _From out of the shadows of the evening leaves three Genin appeared. The top hats they all wore were a dead giveaway to who they were. Tejina and Nise, Nagato remembered, the other boy he didn't know. Nise, the Genin who utilised clones, had a black eye and a bandage wrapped around his right bicep.

"You again!?" Nise said. Unlike last time, Nise had lost his jovial voice, now it was laced with hate and spilled forth with anger. "We already stole one scroll from you. Any chance you've got another?"

"What, did you lose my scroll?" Nagato said. It was obvious sarcasm. It wasn't hard to tell after looking and making a few mental analyses that the Leaf Genin had lost a scroll. Not only had Nise been injured, but all three of their eyes were drawn low, sagging, hollow. They were also blinking frantically, a sign of fatigue. Bags shadowed the rings around their eyes. They had lost one or perhaps both of their scrolls and now they were desperate to get them back.  
Tejina leaped first, Nagato remembered how Taijutsu was his speciality and how he could expertly steal things from you without notice or warning. Nagato's body wasn't at full strength still, he was feeling better and his body ached less and less as time went on but he was still not perfect.  
Nagato weaved hand signs, not as quickly as he once could but still quick enough for what he needed.

"**Water Style: Water Wall!**" Nagato expelled a blast of water that washed over Tejina and pushed him back several large trees away. The water also twisted and twined around the thick trees. Watering the moss and lichen, causing small insects to rampage and leave their homes.

"**Clone Jutsu!**" Nise shrieked with intensity. Several top-hatted figures appeared surrounding Nise. The clones charged at Makui. Makui dodged and weaved, bouncing and swinging around the forest like a child high on a sugar rush.  
In typical Makui fashion, he was smiling his big fat grin.  
That only pissed Nise off.  
"Stop smiling kid! This isn't funny." Nise seethed. As he spoke it wasn't just him. All his clones spoke at the same time. Creating a cacophonic symphony of bleeding rage.

"Maybe not to you," Makui chuckled as he dodged the clones. He knew that an ordinary clone could do no damage, but he still would not risk allowing one to get close. Makui's eyes shifted from clone to clone searching for the real one. In a split second, Makui withdrew a single kunai and launched it. The clones kept moving as if nothing had happened, however, the real Nise back-flipped away, cursing silently as he did so.

"How the hell did you find me in amongst all those clones?" Nise barked.

"That's my secret," Makui said smiling. The Cloud Genin flicked his fingers back and the kunai that Nise dodged had flown back into Makui's hand. Regardless of the dozen or more clones running amok around the canopy of the lanky trees, all Makui's attacks were always aimed at the real Nise. The clones might as well have not existed. Makui never made a mistake.  
While Makui was battling Nise, Nagato had the pleasure of fighting a two on one battle. After Tejina had been washed away by the water Jutsu the knew top-hat Genin joined the battle. From out his sleeve, a white stick slithered into his palm and he gripped it firmly. The boy waved the stick like a wand and several kunai summoned themselves out of small pockets of white smoke. The knives flew towards Nagato who pulled out his own kunai- not as dramatically- from his back pouch and deflected the incoming weapons.  
The wand was waved again. This time a large whirling demon-wing shuriken appeared from white smoke, spiralling towards the Rinnegan boy. Nagato knew he wasn't deflecting that with a simple kunai, so he jumped upwards, spun in mid-air and attached his feet to an overhead branch. He was now dangling upside down.  
The wand boy flicked his wand elegantly at first then stabbed the air with it. A bright, burning tongue of yellow-orange flames erupted out of the wand's tip.  
Nagato's eyes widened in horror.  
He wasn't expecting that. Forming the six hand signs for the Jutsu, Nagato released his own flames.

"**Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!**" Nagato screamed mentally. Both raging flames crashed into each other. Pushing against one another.

"This kid can already use two elements!?" Bō called with extreme surprise.  
Nagato soon found that his fireball was prevailing over his enemies.

"Nice work, Bō," A voice called out. Nagato recognised it as Tejina. "Keep him busy."  
Nagato felt the branch he was stuck upside down on move itself up and down, like a wave. An image of Tejina running on the branch from the top side entered Nagato's mind.  
The Rain Genin negated the chakra on his feet and he plummeted straight down. His fireball Jutsu dissipating too. Bō's flames had passed Nagato's feet and he felt the anger of the flames burn his toes for only a second. Landing on a thick tree trunk below, Nagato prepared himself for another attack. Except, Bō didn't attack. He waved his wand around in circles as if he was composing a musical orchestra.  
It was nothing special, but there was a part of Nagato that couldn't look away. Something deep and intrinsic, his subconsciousness was telling him to keep looking and not do anything else. He stared at the waving wand, following its path through the air. It was beautiful, hypnotic, dangerous. Nagato didn't want to do anything but stare at the dancing wand.  
His mind was telling him to watch.  
His body was twitching, shivering, wanting to move.  
Nagato's mind was happy and content to watch something so amazing as his body shook with tension.  
Genjutsu! His body was trying to tell his mind. Genjutsu!  
At this moment the mind had control over the body and the body was not going anywhere, neither was his gaze. He stared and stared and stared. Over his head, a shadow formed. Tejina was meters away from Nagato, readying himself to attack, exploiting his friends Jutsu. If worse comes to worst, Tejina was going to kill Nagato as he just stood there watching. Never wanting to move or leave this exact moment.  
Then Nagato was flying.  
Trees and branches brushed past him in a blur of dull colours. Without even realising that it had been taken away, Nagato felt arms grip his arm and waist. Snapping out of his hypnotic state the boy turned and saw Makui next to him smiling.

"Looks like your back with us," Makui stated. They landed on the ground and Makui let Nagato go. His mind came back. He blinked a few times aggressively to wake himself up. His head was clouded and foggy. But he knew one thing. Makui had rescued him.

"Thanks," Nagato said apologetically. The sound of a hollow _thud _rang out. Bō stood on a branch waving his wand again and summoning a bunch of shuriken. Nise, with his one black eye and face of hatred, also showed up. Makui threw his kunai and with the Magnet style controlled it with perfect aim. His kunai knocked aside all attacking shuriken like an annoying fly buzzing around and then the kunai returned to its master.  
Tejina showed up swinging his leg around. Nagato got in front of Makui and blocked the kick with his forearm, then pushed back. Tejina balanced himself then attacked again, throwing strong punches. Nagato slapped all the punches away. As he did so he noticed something hanging on one of the higher branches. He knew what to do from that.  
Without permission, Nagato yanked the kunai from his friends' hand.

"Makui! Run!" Nagato screamed.  
There was, at that moment an instinctual trust between the two of them. A trust that would normally be created by two people throughout years of bonding and partnership. This bond, however, was established over a few hours. When Nagato screamed at Makui to run. He did. No hesitation, no stumbling. Makui listened and acted as if he was ordered by his Raikage. There was a powerful but unspoken friendship between these two boys, these two Genin.  
Makui started running away from the fight. At the same time, Nagato threw the kunai. He didn't aim it at any of the Leaf Genin, he aimed it at an object that was above their heads.  
It was a thick and wide cacoon shape. Its colour was a blend of brown, black and occasionally there was a wave of yellow. Nagato threw the kunai perfectly at the stem that was holding the cacoon up. Right after that happened, Nagato sprinted himself. As quickly as his legs could take him because what was about to happen was going to dangerous.  
The kunai cut the stem and the cacoon dropped. The three Leaf Genin was about to follow suit when the cacoon smashed into the ground and released an army of angry wasps.  
Tejina, Nise, and Bō wailed and convulsed like they were being shocked, arms flailing around crazily. Screaming like they were seconds away from being murdered.  
Nagato and Makui got away as quickly from the killer bees as they could.

"Good idea," Makui said.

"Thanks," Nagato replied. "Should buy us some time." As they ran along the ground, Nagato turned his head slightly and focused his hearing. He could hear footsteps closing in.  
_They couldn't have caught up that quickly.  
_He couldn't see anyone; they were moving discreetly in the shadows of the bushes.

"Not people," Makui said. As if on cue to prove his statement correct both Genin began hearing rough, ragged breathing. Then the sounds of growling and howling started. "Probably wolves," Makui said with concern in his voice and on his face.  
Then from out of one of the side bushes, a grey-furred wolf leaped out towards the two boys. Lunacy and hunger drove the wolf to attack. It snapped its drooling muzzle at Nagato's heels. Luckily it missed.  
Then more came out. Five maybe six. Neither Nagato nor Makui wanted to stop and count. Makui yelped as a wolf came close to his back. The others kept pace with their prey.  
Nagato used a **Shinra Tensei **to push a wolf into a thick tree when it got to close for comfort. As if to avenge their fallen packmate, the other wolves attack with more ferocity, closing the gap quickly.  
Makui, even while running turn his head to get a quick look. Withdrawing several shuriken from his pouch mid-run, he jumped forwards, performed a dodge roll and spun around on his heels releasing the metal stars. Out of the five or six wolves, three were struck in the neck, those three wolves toppled down, unwillingly rolling into the ground. One wolf was cut on the leg and it fell with a hard _thump. _One shuriken missed a target altogether and escaped beyond the leaves. The last wolf, who did not seem to notice its fallen comrades leaped at Nagato, jaw wide and ready. Nagato brought his fist up with instinct and slammed it under the animal's jaw. It flew backwards perhaps a metre or so. It got back to its feet and let out a sympathetic whine. Nagato didn't think it was sympathetic, it was probably a ploy, to lull the humans into a false sense of security. However, the now lone wolf did not attack. It scampered away. Its prey to powerful for it.  
_Did it even care that its family and friends had died_? Nagato wondered.  
"That was close," Makui heaved through heavy breaths. "Guess I'm still lacking in the control area, ya' know."  
Nagato assumed that he was talking about the stray shuriken that flew into nowhere.  
"I can control one, two maybe even three objects at one time. Anything more and I usually lose control of one or two of them. I was aiming for all their throats only three found their mark, luckily one of the strays was cut in the leg but I can't say I planned that." The Cloud Genin raised his hands and his shuriken, except for the one lost returned into the slips between his fingers. Then he stashed them into his pouch.  
As soon as he did a large slug, black and slimy dropped right in front of him. A second one dropped a couple of seconds later. The two Genin decided to move away.  
Now it seemed that it was nature's turn to try and kill.  
The two new friends ran and searched all day, but they did not find their respective teammates. The night was beginning to settle in comfortably, spreading its cool breath over the Forest of Death. Nagato and Makui found another cave to rest in. Luckily this cave was empty except for some small insects which Makui eventually shooed away. On this night they didn't bother with a bonfire. Their constant running had kept their body temperatures high.  
Makui fell asleep first spread eagle on the dirt, snoring loudly. Nagato remained awake for a little while longer thinking about his friends. Taking another look at his necklace and seeing hopeful images, Nagato laid down and eventually sleep took him too.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Nagato and Makui woke up early that morning and continued the search for their teammates. The sun rose and gave the forest a warm glow. The morning was quiet, birds began to sing their wake-up sounds. There were other animals inside the forest that would be waking up as well. At this moment it was hard to believe that groups of kids were battling each other. Some of them even killing.  
Makui looked to his side

"We got a team incoming. More early birds." Makui said.  
Nagato couldn't see anything. Still, he trusted Makui's senses. The two Genin veered away in another direction. It was another 5 minutes before Nagato asked Makui a question.

"Can you sense people?" Nagato asked. Not that he doubted Makui's abilities but even Jiraiya sensei wasn't the best at the Sensing Jutsu. He told the Rain Genin that some people had a certain knack for sensing and others did not.

"Have you ever heard of Biomagnetism?" Makui asked. Nagato thought for a second.

"No," Nagato confessed.

"Well, long story short, living organisms can produce their own magnetic forces. It's an extremely small amount nothing people can notice. For me though because of my Magnet Style, I can sense it inside people," Makui explained. "When I was fighting that Leaf Genin, Nise and he created all the clones I could still sense the real one."  
Nagato came up with a sudden idea.

"Is each Bio-magnetic signature unique?" Nagato asked.

"Honestly, I don't know. It all feels the same ya' know, and before you ask, I can't sense your friends or mine. They have to be fairly close for me to detect them." As soon as Makui said that there was a rustle in the bushes next to him. A black blur blasted out of the green foliage and smashed into Nagato. Nagato had been jumping from tree branch to tree branch only seconds ago. Now that he was hit, he tumbled down to the ground, his assailant was travelling down with them.  
Nagato focused himself and landed on his feet, he withdrew a kunai quickly and spun around, however, he was greeted by a steel katana pointed at his face. Nagato froze, not wanting to skewer himself.  
That's when he saw it.  
He had seen it so many times, in fact, he had grown up with it. That orange hair. He had seen it messy, combed, wet, covered in mud, one time he had even seen it slicked back, he looked ridiculous. It was obvious who it was.

"Yahiko?" Nagato basically whispered. Yahiko's jaw dropped slightly as he started to recognise the boy in front of him who he held hostage at sword point.

"Nagato!?" Yahiko said almost like a question. He dropped his sword slowly. Sheathing his sword, Yahiko and Nagato embraced each other. It was like a miracle. Nagato was just talking about his friends and they showed. "Oww, not so hard buddy." Yahiko flinched away from his friend.  
Nagato had only seen Yahiko's recognisable bright, orange hair. Now as he let Yahiko go and took a step back, he was able to get a full glimpse of his teammate.  
A band-aid stuck to his cheek. His left bicep was wrapped in bandages. One of his thighs was also wrapped in bandages. His eyes were dishevelled and wore dark bags underneath. His clothes were stained with patches of dirt. Nagato and Makui had been through their own share of battles against both Genin and wild animals. It seems like after seeing Yahiko standing before him, his teammates had been through their own battles.  
There was an iron squeak that screeched passed a thick trunk. A second later Arukui strolled out in his wheelchair, Kakui pushing him along the ground. Konan was following from their side. She was peering about her surroundings.

"Yahiko, I said don't run too far…" Her sentence drifted off as she finally landed her eyes on Nagato. Nagato smiled at her.

"Hi," Nagato said cheerily, happy to see his friends all together again. Konan also had that worn look about her. Her clothes similarly covered in dirt stains. Bandages wrapped around one her shins, a slight bloodstain appeared on the white cloth. Konan ran forwards and hugged Nagato. They embraced for a while, broke apart then all three friends, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan joined in a three-way hug. Happy to see and be with each other again. Once they had finished, they all stepped back. Wide grins had spread across all their faces even despite their injuries.

"Look at you," Yahiko said. "Not a single scratch on you."

"Oh yeah, take a look at this." Nagato pulled down the collar of his jacket and revealed the bandages that Makui had wrapped around his shoulder after he stabbed him with the shuriken. It was a weird conversation, comparing injuries. Still, it made Nagato smile, made him feel lucky to be reunited with his friends. With his family.

"So, you've been making a ruckus around here too."

"Looks like you guys have as well. What happened?" Nagato asked.

"Ran into some lovely guys from the Stone Village. Gave us some trouble," Yahiko admitted. "Nothing we couldn't handle."

"We did get help from Kakui and Arukui," Konan interjected.  
There were voices coming from just the side of the Rain Genin.  
Makui had been reunited with his teammates as well. Upon meeting Arukui, Makui had greeted him with a fist bump. When he met Kakui, she had greeted him with a punch in the arm.  
Nagato and Makui had made eye contact while they were in their friendship groups. Thinking back to their conversation just before Yahiko had smacked into him. Nagato remembered Makui saying he could sense nearby people by sensing their Biomagnetism. Nagato made a facial expression that was supposed to say;  
_I thought you could sense nearby people.  
_Makui rubbed the back of his head and laughed, mostly to himself. As if to say _sorry.  
I guess he's still a Genin for a reason. _Nagato thought.

"Yeah, they helped us out a lot," Yahiko confessed. "They're still competition, though. Now that we're all together again, we should get out of here. We weren't able to get a scroll," Yahiko gestured to himself and Konan by waving his thumb between the two of them.  
Nagato smiled.

"Don't worry, I got us another scroll," Nagato said.

"Really?" Yahiko whispered. "From where?"

"Makui," Nagato whispered back. Yahiko turned his head towards the Cloud Genin. "We've got both scrolls we can head to the central tower now."

"Hey!" Makui called. Team Nagato all turned their attention towards the boy. "Now that we're all back together, we're going to leave you guys to it. Besides, we need to get another scroll," Makui paused for a moment. "Because I err… lost ours."  
Nagato tried to stifle a smile.  
"See you guys later. We'll catch up again at the tower ya' know."  
Makui grabbed Arukui's wheelchair and began pushing him through the thick forest. The wheels screeched as they spun. Kakui followed her team, her facial expression stuck in a blank expression. Once the Cloud Ninja had gone the three Rain ninja left for the centre tower.  
Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan spent most of the day steering clear of the other teams. They had both scrolls needed to past the 2nd exam, all they had to do now was keep both scrolls and make safely to the tower. The closer they got to the tower the more damaged and battle-worn the forest had become. Trees snapped, lying on the ground like wooden corpses, craters of various sizes scarred the earth, bushes were torn apart or burnt black.  
_Some teams would have thought of making their way to the tower first and then attacking any incoming teams, _Nagato thought. _It's smart but it also reveals a sense of desperation.  
_Around mid-day, when the sunset upon the sky, baring its heated fangs towards the earth, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan stopped for lunch. They found some fish in a small pond, skewered them, cooked them using Nagato's Fire Style and then ate them. It was a quick rest. After they ate in mostly silence the trio took off again.  
The Forest of Death had a way of messing with one's depth and distance. After spending most of the day running towards the middle tower it didn't seem that the Rain Genin were any closer. They stopped running for a few minutes to catch their breath and for Nagato to climb a tree to get a better view of the tower. Nagato assumed that his drop off the cliff had created a detour. He saw the tip of the tower in the distance. They had definitely gotten closer, but it was still going to take a while before they reached the tower.  
Yahiko and Konan were drinking water when Nagato joined them.

"We're getting closer," Nagato stated. "If we keep going straight, we should reach the tower soon. I think we should wait until tomorrow."

"I agree," Konan chimed in. "We don't know what happens when we get to the tower. We should rest up, at least as much as we can."

"That's a factor too," Nagato agreed, "Also, based on the environmental destruction around these parts I'm going to assume that there are going to be a lot of people waiting and preying on unsuspecting teams."

"It's like back home," Yahiko started, "It was usually quiet at night, that's when we used to move. The same strategy applies now. Most of the teams might be thinking that heading to the tower at night is the safest bet. But, the other teams, the more desperate teams will be lying in wait."

"Yeah," said Nagato. "Only we won't fall for that trap. We'll find a place to rest. While the remaining teams fight amongst each other and tire themselves out we'll be getting back to full strength. The teams that stay up all night waiting for someone to show will be extremely fatigued."

"There might be some teams that think the same way we do," Yahiko said.

"There's always going to be risks no matter what decision we make," Konan added.

All three Rain Genin nodded.

"Let's go find someplace nice to sleep," Yahiko said.

"Let me find the nearest hotel for you," Nagato quipped. Yahiko smiled and then the three started looking for a good place to spend the night.  
Eventually, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan found a tall, thick tree. The roots of the tree were massive and snake-like and they seemed to keep the tree from touching the earth. One could stand inside the roots, beneath the tree and find a ceiling.

"It's probably the best we're gonna find," Yahiko said. It was cool under the tree. The sun was beginning to rest itself the heat being drawn away from the earth.

"Konan give us some cover, please," Yahiko asked.

"Yep," Konan raised her arms and hundreds of paper sheets filed out of her sleeve. The paper turned from the colour white to the colour brown and formed a wall or a curtain whichever way one saw it. It did its job and covered any preying eyes. The paper then began revealing bushes of green and red.  
From the inside, it looked brown, in some places black and very dull. From the outside it looked like the base of the tree was surrounded in a dense, impenetrable rose bush. Complete with the image of sharp thorns.  
No one would be coming near this tree.

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan slept soundly and undisturbed for the whole night. When they woke, sometime in the morning they all packed up their belongings hurriedly. The pain in Nagato's shoulder from being stabbed by Makui's shuriken and completely disappeared. Every other part of him that had ached was also at peace from the pain. Yahiko and Konan, however, were still dressed in new, white bandages. Cut's and bruises while mostly disguised under their clothes were still visible on their faces.  
Nonetheless, today was the day when all three Rain Genin would make it to the central Tower and pass the second stage of the Chunin exam. After bringing down the fake exterior the three Genin took off.

"We should be careful from here on out," Nagato told his comrades. "Who knows who's waiting for us out here?"  
Yahiko and Konan nodded in agreement.  
While they were running through the forest there happened to be a break in the canopy above. Looking upwards, Nagato saw the pointed top of the tower.  
They were close now, almost to the end.  
All that was left was to keep moving forwards and reach the tower. Hopefully, they could do it without running into another team.  
However, that was all it was. Hope. A wish. A dream.  
It was not going to go exactly as he wanted because this was a test to prove oneself. It's not just Nagato's and his team's dream on the line, every Genin was fighting for something. Fighting to win.  
A whistling sound flew through the air, followed by a deep _thump. _All three Rain Genin looked upwards to see a kunai stuck in a thick trunk above their heads with an explosive tag dancing in the wind. After a second the tag exploded sending a wave of orange and yellow fire outwards. Shrapnel of wood was scattered around the area and the giant logs dropped from their high resting places. The ears of the kids rang deafeningly and deeply. The sound almost reverberating from inside their skulls.  
Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan backed away.  
Dropping from the canopy's shadow was a Genin from the Stone Village. He wore red pants but the rest of his body, including both arms, his torso, and his face were wrapped in bandages, his eyes were the only things on his body that were exposed. His headband hung from his neck. He pulled out a kunai from his back pouch and charged at Konan. Konan quickly withdrew her own kunai knife and blocked her attacker.

"Give me your scrolls!" Shouted the Genin. His voice was muffled because of the wrappings.  
Yahiko was about to help his friend out. Drawing one of his katana he started forwards but was blocked by the appearance of a tall, large boy. Yahiko's jaw dropped. This boy – Yahiko wondered if he could even be called that- seemed more like a man, and saying he was tall was an understatement, he was ginormous. He was muscular and towering, carrying an oversized butcher's knife. The boy was not a teammate of the other Genin as he was garbed in the traditional outfit of the Leaf Village.  
The Leaf Genin swung his massive knife was astonishing ease. Yahiko coated his katana in chakra to help his defence but it was ultimately meaningless. Yahiko was sent flying with insane speed and disappeared into the clutches of the Forest of Death's leaves and bushes.

"Yahiko!" Nagato screamed. From behind the Rinnegan boy came a resounding _crack. _Nagato turned to see several trees being snapped and pushed out the way. Like a giant had grasped several trees and snapped them like toothpicks. Out of the bushes charged a violently rotating lump of… something. It was spherical and when it moved it uprooted the ground, pushing dirt behind it.

"**Human Boulder!**" The ball yelled.  
_Is that a person!? _Nagato yelled at himself in his own mind.

"**Shinra Tensei!**" Nagato called, raising his hand to push the ball away. To his amazement and also his now rising fear, the ball kept rolling.  
The sheer size and rotational speed of the ball were too much for the Shinra Tensei to push away.  
That had been a first for Nagato.  
It was also a grave reminder that Nagato still had a lot of training ahead of him to develop his Jutsu.  
Nagato clapped his hands together then slammed them into the dirt. "**Earth Style: Mobile Core!**" A chunk of rock rose from the ground and formed a ramp in front of Nagato. The human boulder hit the ramp, went over it and was sent flying into the air.  
Konan, who was still keeping her opponents knife away from herself saw the sky above her darken to black. She pulled back, jumping away from her enemy. A second or two after she moved, the large, spinning ball crashed into the ground. The Stone Genin backed away. The ground cracked in several places becoming reminiscent of cracked glass. The ball disappeared within white smoke and a second later a chubby boy emerged from the crater he had created.  
The butcher-knife wielding Genin attacked the bandaged Stone Genin. Swinging his blade, the Stone Genin ducked underneath then jumped away.  
Nagato and Konan went to escape from the skirmish and find Yahiko.  
The chubby boy who was apart of the Akimichi clan gave chase.

"**Paper Shuriken!**" Konan bellowed. Half a dozen white shuriken flew out of Konan's sleeves.

"**Partial Expansion Jutsu!**" The two arms of the Leaf Genin swelled up in size. He then proceeded to clap his hands together which created a powerful shockwave that blasted the paper shuriken away.  
However, Nagato and Konan were no longer visible. They had successfully escaped.  
They rushed through the bushes looking for their friend.  
The sound of clashing steel rang out somewhere nearby. Nagato and Konan followed the sound.  
Eventually, they found Yahiko who was battling two mummified Genin at the same time. Teammates to the other Stone Genin, one of these Genin had his headband wrapped around his forehead while the other Genin had his wrapped around his waist. Yahiko had both katana drawn.  
One of the Stone Genin attacked with a kunai in hand. Yahiko blocked the knife with his left blade then quickly ducked and used his foot to sweep the enemy's feet off the ground, while the Genin fell Yahiko struck him with the hilt of his right blade in the side of the boy's neck slamming him into the ground. The other Stone Genin let fly a barrage of shuriken. Yahiko swung both blades as if swatting several flies. Every Shuriken was knocked away. Konan who had reached her friend shot out several pieces of rectangular paper and forced them to wrap around the attacker's feet. He could not move.  
Konan appeared and had several layers of paper wrapped tightly around her fist. The paper layers formed a sort of hammer. Coating the paper hammer with her chakra she struck the Stone Genin square in the chest. He let out a grunted heave before he was travelling through the forest, smashing through thin branches until he smacked hard into a tree trunk. He fell flat on his stomach but no longer moved. Nor did his comrade that Yahiko took down.  
Konan detached the paper from around her hand and recalled them back inside her sleeve.

"You ok?" Nagato asked Yahiko.

"That big guy packed a punch," Yahiko said as he re-sheathed his katana then began rotating his shoulder. "But, yeah, I'm fine. You guys?"

"All good," Nagato and Konan said in unison. The Rain Genin took off once again.  
A minute or two later the three Genin came across an area that did not seem to fit into the surroundings of the green forestry. The area that Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan walked into was covered in a rough blanket of sand. The green leaves and the brown trunks were covered in the dull yellow of the sand. It was like standing in an oversized sandpit. Only it wasn't just the ground that was covered. Leaves and bushes were buried and squashed underneath. It was only upon further exploration that the leaves and bushes weren't the only things that were buried.  
Konan let out a shrill gasp as she covered her gaping mouth with both hands as she pointed to the ground. Poking out of the sand and slightly obscured was a foot.

"Here's another one," Yahiko said. Nagato found another mound of sand with an army of ants marching on top of the hill. He knew there was a body underneath it.  
Looking at the sand more carefully with his Rinnegan, Nagato noticed traces of chakra weaving about the sand.  
_This isn't ordinary or natural sand, _Nagato thought. _This was someone's Jutsu.  
_There wasn't anything the kids could do for the dead Genin, so they took off once again.  
As the Rain Genin ran along the ground, Nagato spotted a small puddle. If it wasn't for his Rinnegan he never would have paid any real attention to it, however, because of the Rinnegan he saw an aura of chakra pouring off the water.

"That puddle of water is an enemy," Nagato told his friends. Yahiko and Konan who trusted their friend's intuition and vision nodded, and all three kids jumped into the air. Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan barely made it a metre off the ground when something or more likely someone grabbed the back of Nagato's and Yahiko's necks and slammed them face-first into the ground.  
Nagato immediately tasted blood and felt it rush out of his nose. Yahiko was in a similar situation only he let out an angry cry. Konan took a second but only a second to be shocked. Then she steeled herself and formed two spinning rings out of paper. She shot them both at the two Genin that was standing on top of her friends.  
The puddle had bubbled and began rising and shaping itself into a human. Finally, the shape was no longer water but an actual human being. He took out two small shuriken and through them at the paper rings. He formed some hand signs quickly, and the two shuriken enlarged. Becoming the same size as Makui's they deflected Konan's paper rings.  
The Genin that attacked Konan was from the Mist Village. Obvious due to the Mist headband he wore. He along with his two friends who were pushing Nagato and Yahiko's faces into the dirt were all wearing navy blue undershirts with light blue flak jackets on top. Blue scarves waved behind them in the wind.  
Nagato and Yahiko were trying to push their attackers off of them but their arms had been pinned down.  
Konan waved her arms and summoned sheets of paper from her sleeves, sending them flying towards the enemy. The paper sheets didn't fold into shuriken or any weapons. They remained normal rectangular sheets of paper. At least, that was what the Mist Genin thought at first. After watching the paper sheets more closely he realised that paper bombs had been mixed in with the normal ones. The Genin yelled and back away as quickly as possible. Konan formed a hand sign and the paper bombs exploded in quick succession. It sounded like tiny fireworks had gone off.  
A thick grey smoke cloud wafted through the air and began obscuring everyone's visions. The two Genin who sat upon the boys covered their mouths and started to cough.  
When they finished coughing, they waved away the smoke, trying to reclaim vision.  
The two Mist Genin noticed before they saw that the bodies they were sitting on had become noticeably hard.  
As they looked down at their victims, and the smoke had partially vanished they realised they were both sitting on wooden logs. Turning to each other first with confused faces, the Mist Genin then looked to their other sides.  
Yahiko kicked his attacker on the side of his face and sent him toppling over. Nagato drew his fist back and punched his attacker square in the nose as hard as he could. Blood dripped from the boy's nose as soon as he was hit. Nagato then karate-chopped the boy's neck and he immediately stiffened and fell on his side.  
The last remaining Mist Genin returned and saw his defeated teammates. He looked rapidly at his teammates than at the Rain Genin then back at his teammates, and finally, he made the decision to jump away into the deep foliage of the forest.

"He left his team behind," Yahiko spat with obvious disgust, "Coward."

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan considered that Genin's action the biggest disrespect towards one's team. All three Rain Genin would rather die than to abandon their friends. Nagato looked around for the other two Mist Genin. The one that Yahiko kicked was lying motionless. The boy that Nagato punched was clutching his bleeding nose which had now soaked the front of his blue flak jacket with red stains, he groaned with pain.  
There wasn't much the bloodied Genin could accomplish on his own so Nagato decided to leave him.

"We should get moving," Nagato suggested.  
The more they ran the more of the tower they could all see which could only mean that they were getting closer to finishing the second stage of the exam.  
The closer to the tower one got the fewer trees there were. Unlike the vast majority of the Forest of Death where the trees were tightly compacted to create thousands of nooks and crannies to hide in, the area closest to the central tower was rather spacious. There were still a lot of trees, but they were spread further away from one another. Reducing the places were participants could hide and secretly assault victims.  
Aside from the moss, flowers, bushes and small insects, destruction happened to decorate this part of the woods. Trees had been snapped, cracked, burnt, slashed, toppled over and riddled with various weapons like kunai, shuriken, and senbon needles. This section of the forest was in the worst shape of the entire forest that Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan had seen.  
That also meant that they were close. The destruction had been caused by the countless teams who were unfortunate enough to not get two scrolls, or who had lost one scroll and were anxious to get their hands on another.  
This tactic, regardless of whether it was effective or not, showed a lack of ability and confidence. Waiting for an unsuspecting team to ambush and take their belongings would not prove one's skill. In a real-life mission, an ambush like that would hardly ever happen. The ability to adapt and create new plans on the run was also a skill of being a shinobi.  
After spending 4 days inside the Forest of Death and after seeing the central tower numerous times from a distance, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan had finally made it to the end.  
All three kids craned their necks to get a good look at the tower.  
It was a tall red tower with layers stacked upon layers. Looking at it from the ground the tip of the tower seemed to touch the heavens.  
The base of the ground had several large yellow-coloured doors that spanned the circumference of the tower.

"This is it," Nagato said.

"Yeah," Yahiko said, "The second stage passed. Man, this test is too easy." Konan glared at Yahiko as if to say that all their injuries throughout the course of the 4 days suggested otherwise.

"Let's not wait any longer," Nagato said. The Rain Genin started forward, as they did several _thuds _sounded off behind them. Turning around, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan were faced with a group of competition. Genin from a bunch of different villages had grouped up with the obvious task of stealing the scrolls.  
"Give us a break," Yahiko groaned.  
_We're so close. Why now? _Nagato thought. _That's it, finishing this now.  
_Present within the group of ambushers were the three Stone Genin wrapped up in bandages, the Mist Genin who had run away previously was there alone without his teammates, the massive Leaf Genin still brandishing his equally massive butcher knife was joined by the Akimichi clan member, and another Leaf Genin cloaked in a puffy green jacket in which small beetles spilled from his sleeves.  
"Yahiko! I need you to give me some water, drench them. Konan! Stop them from moving."

"Right," Yahiko said.

"Right," Konan said.

"**Earth Style: Mud Wall!**" Nagato roared. Yahiko, who moved to stand behind Nagato was standing on the mud wall when it erupted from the ground. As the orange-haired boy rose into the air he formed hand signs.  
Konan allowed thousands of paper sheets to pour from her body. They sped forwards and spun around the group of attackers, fencing them in like cattle.

"**Water Style: Water Wall!**" Yahiko called out before spewing a wave of water over his friends, drenching the incongruous group of Genin who stood inside the paper ring, getting soaked from head to toe.

"**Lightning Style: Emotion Wave!**" After weaving the necessary hand signs, Nagato slammed his hands into the soft, wet, muddy earth and sent his lightning coursing through the drenched grass. The grass sparked with blue flashes as the lightning passed through it. Eventually, the lighting travelled into the bodies of the wet Genin, shocking them. Their bodies convulsed and twisted into horrible poses. They all screamed out for a few seconds then dropped to the ground practically in unison. As if they had all been standing with the help of marionette strings and those strings had been cut.  
There was silence except for the shrill cries of birds who flew away from the danger zone.  
Nagato lowered the mud wall so Yahiko could stand on the ground again.  
Before anything else could interrupt the Rain trio they ran up the stairs towards the huge yellow doors and pushed them open.  
Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan walked into the middle of a concrete room, echoes of their footsteps followed them. They all turned their heads this way and that way scanning the empty room.

"Anti-climactic much," Yahiko said, "Now what?"

"Look at that," Konan said as she pointed to the wall in front of them.  
There was a large framed poster on the wall covered in writing. Konan decided to read it out loud. "If you do not possess Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared. If you do not possess Earth, run through the fields and seek strength."  
Nagato was reading it again silently under his breath. The words Heaven and Earth caught his attention. He withdrew the Heaven scroll and Earth scroll from his back pouch.

"I think we have to open the scrolls now," Nagato suggested with a slight sense of hesitance. The proctor had forbidden them from opening the scroll at all during the 2nd stage of the exam. Nagato wasn't one hundred percent sure opening the scrolls was the right choice, but the mentioning of Heaven and Earth couldn't just be a coincidence.

"I guess we have to try something," Yahiko said, giving Nagato some confidence going into his next action.  
Nagato threw the Earth scroll to Yahiko and told him to open it. Together the two comrades peeled the scroll open slowly. "Is yours doing anything," Yahiko asked.

"No," Then both scrolls started to emit thin trails of white smoke. Nagato and Yahiko both threw their scrolls to the ground. They overlapped one another. Then a burst of smoke erupted from the scrolls. The trio backed away slowly as they saw a shadow swim inside the smoke.  
Nagato thought a new enemy had appeared. Yahiko thought an evil creature would pop up, all snarling teeth and a hulking mass. It seemed to Konan to be a summoning Jutsu. But what exactly had been summoned?  
They all took fighting stances, then finally relaxed as the smoke cleared.  
The legendary Sannin Jiraiya stood before his three students.

"Long time no see," Jiraiya beamed.

"Sensei," All three Rain Genin said gleefully. They started to run forwards to greet their sensei, but Jiraiya held out his hand to stop them. His face had turned serious.

"I'm here on official Chunin Exam business." He pointed to the wall. "Can any of you tell me what that statement means?"

"If you do not possess Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared," Nagato read out loud, "If our weakness lies in strategy, tactics, and knowledge, we should work on improving our minds. If you do not possess Earth, run through the fields and seek strength. In other words, if we lack physical strength and ability, we should work on improving that."  
Jiraiya looked dumbfounded.

"Did I tell you that?"

"Actually, you did," Nagato said smiling. "During one of our first training sessions. I mean, it was paraphrased, but it was basically what you said to us."

"Hey!" Yahiko piped up, "Is that the time he called me dumb?"

"He said you lacked wit," Nagato confessed.  
Jiraiya looked guilty.

"I don't know if this counts as cheating. You know what? It doesn't matter." A huge grin grew on the Sage's face, "You all passed the second stage of the Chunin Exam."  
Jiraiya held out his arms and his three students ran right into him, giving him a tight hug. Jiraiya embraced his students back. He was so proud.

* * *

Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan were taken to a room with three beds and a table that had a plateful of small sandwiches, next to the food was a jug of water and some glasses. Jiraiya had told his students that they were to stay inside the room until summoned. The Rain Genin had finished the exam after four days, the second phase of the Chunin exam lasted for five days, so the kids had made it with somewhere near a day left to spare. However, the second stage would not end until the allotted time was up, so for now, the kids were allowed to rest.  
It felt good to eat proper food and drink water knowing that it was clean. Nagato told his friends of his lizard breakfast that he ate when he was with Makui. Yahiko pulled a disgusted face.  
After eating they decided to get some shut-eye. Nagato was sure that the events of the past four days would have kept him awake, fortunately, he was proven wrong. He couldn't remember when he fell asleep, but he did know that it wasn't a struggle to sleep. After sleeping on the ground for four days in a row it was nice to have a soft warm bed to rest one. It was not lost on him, on any of the orphans that they had spent years sleeping on hard ground in cold, wet caves.  
Perhaps- though a little sad- that was their one advantage against the other teams. They could sleep anywhere they needed to.  
Sleeping throughout the night and well into the next day, the three friends finally woke up. They chattered amongst themselves.

"I wonder how many of the other teams made it?" Nagato posed the question.

"The second stage was definitely a lot tougher than the first stage," Konan said.

"You said it, Konan," Yahiko dangled his legs off the side of the bed and swung them up and down. "This test was a way to get rid of allota` teams. But it couldn't get rid of us."  
Nagato wished, for what it was worth, that at least Makui's team and Kusayari's team passed. After hearing about their stories, he believed that they deserved to pass.  
"As long as Funsui and his idiot team don't make it, I don't care who else passes."

"Makui fought him," Added Nagato, "Apparently his gotten strong,"

"Humph!" Yahiko scoffed, "When we were separated from you, Kakui and Arukui said that Funsui was looking for me. That guy is a problem." Nagato and Konan both agreed.  
There wasn't much to do anymore except wait for the second stage of the exam to officially end.  
Konan had passed the time by folding a sheet of paper she had created into an origami creation. Yahiko was lying dreamily on his bed. Nagato was sitting on his bed, playing with his necklace. He gave it tiny amounts of chakra and saw multiple images float around the swirling mist of the stone. Images that made him happy and hopeful. Hours had passed very slowly.  
Suddenly, a high pitch note screeched in the room. There was a small box fixed to the wall where the sound was coming from. A second later, a man's voice spoke through the box.

"All participants who successfully cleared the second stage of the Chunin Exam are to make their way down to the main hall immediately."

Konan placed a small paper crane on a desk-top to the side of her then stood up. Yahiko and Nagato stood up too.

"Let's do this," Yahiko said as he strapped his two katana onto his back. They opened their bedroom door and stepped into the hallway. The hall ended in descending stairs. Another door opened up and three Genin spilled out of their room. Nagato recognised them as the Sand Genin he saw back during the first stage. The big, muscular boy with the bandage-wrapped arms closed the door shut and followed his team down the stairs.  
The Rain Genin descended the stairs and found their way into a massive room. All four walls along with the ceiling and floor were covered in large stone tiles. The back wall had a humongous statue of two hands forming the Ram hand sign. On the walls hung long-standing zones that had stairs leading up to them.  
There were many Genin standing around chatting amongst their teams. Upon first glancing at the remaining teams, Nagato's face lit up with excitement. He noticed the wheelchair first, then look at the Genin surrounding it. Makui and Kakui were locked in conversation.  
_They made it! _Nagato cheered to himself.  
Nagato's happiness continued as he saw - sticking out like a sore thumb with their coats of grass and dirt- that Shibafu and his team had passed too. Their choice of garments stood out.

"Of course, he did," Yahiko seethed with dark sarcasm. Yahiko grabbed Nagato's shoulder and directed his attention to three Genin standing on the outskirts of the rest of the teams. His messy hair looked like a brown mop on his head, his long cloak still covering the large hunch on his back.  
_Funsui passed. _Nagato's happy streak had suddenly crashed into sadness.

"Everyone, gather around!" Shouted The proctor for the second exam. Shinku Yuhi suddenly manifested out of thin air in front of the crowd of kids.  
Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan along with Funsui and his team meant that two teams from the Rain Village had passed. Kusayari, Shibafu, and Koke had passed for the Grass Village. Makui, Kakui, and Arukui from the Cloud Village. A team from the Sand Village and Stone Village were the remaining two teams that had passed.  
In total, six teams had passed; 18 individual Genin stood around Shinku.

"I must applaud all teams who are here now for passing the 2nd stage of the Chunin Exam," Shinku said. "The Forest of Death was an extremely taxing and dangerous stage, for both your physical and mental health. Which is why all of you who are here represent the best of the best out of all your competitors. Whether you have been at this tower for the past couple of days, or your team barely scraped through the front door with seconds to spare, you should all be proud of yourselves."  
There was a round of applause from each of the teams' Jonin sensei, who stood in a neat line facing the Genin.  
Jiraiya was clapping enthusiastically, a grin spread wide across his face.  
Next to the Sannin was a tall, thin, dark-skinned man, with dangling dreadlocks that reached his waist. He was wearing the traditional outfit of the Cloud Village. He must have been Makui's sensei. There was upon further inspection, a close likeliness between the master and student. He clapped jovially, also with a proud grin on his face.  
Next to him was a burly man with tan skin and a scruffy beard, garbed in the Stone Villages red outfit. He clapped- it seemed out of politeness- with an uninterested, stony face.  
Next to him was a tiny man in comparison, he could have been mistaken for a child if it wasn't for the wrinkles that aged his face. His body was hidden by a cloak of grass and dirt, all that could be seen was his hands clapping quietly. It was obvious, despite the headband, which team he was leading.  
Next to the dwarf of a man was another large, muscular man. A hefty scroll was being carried by the Jonin. He clapped with slow, but thunderous pounds of his hands. He was wearing the outfit of the Sand Village.  
Lastly, a normal-sized man wearing a waterproof poncho and protruding gas mask stood at the end of the Jonin line. He joined in the applause with his fellow Jonin, although his face was heavily covered due the mask, his eyes seemed narrowed and focused, staring intensely into the crowd of competition.  
The applause eventually died down. "Yes, while all of you here have done an excellent job of proving your skills to me and my fellow proctors, it has become apparent that perhaps the 2nd stage of the exam was not difficult enough." Shinku continued. That statement brought about a hushed, confusion amongst the kids. "Although you may not like hearing this, we had hoped that there was going to be fewer Genin left then there are here. Therefore, starting right now, we are going to be holding a preliminary round. A preliminary round may be held at any time during the beginning or end of a phase, in the event that we, as proctors, believe that there are too many Genin participating in any given stage. As you can already tell, more than half of the teams who passed the written exam failed to complete the Forest of Death. However, we still feel that there are too many of you to continue into the 3rd stage of the exam, so we're going to thin out the herd." Off to the side of Shinku were about half a dozen Leaf Chunin. One of them walked up to and handed Shinku a clipboard. "The preliminary round will consist of one-on-one battles. There is 18 Genin present here, so that makes nine rounds of battle. Similarly, to the forest, there are very few rules in these battles. A battle will end if a participant is gravely injured or killed, or I should believe that a participant has won with overwhelming success. "  
After hearing this news, the Genin broke out into small conversations amongst themselves.

"No brake, huh," Yahiko breathed out.

"Because of what I just explained," Shinku carried on, "I will give each of you the option to pull out of the exam now. If you are fatigued or heavily injured, you do not have to participate in the preliminary rounds. Also, if you choose to leave, your team will not be forced out with you. This is an individual choice. Should you choose to leave then obviously you will be disqualified from the Chunin Exams. You may try again next year. I will give you exactly one minute to make your decisions." Shinku walked over to the Leaf proctors and also, Nagato did not notice him beforehand, the Hokage.

"We're all going into this, right?" Yahiko asked his friends.

"Yeah, I'm going forwards," Nagato replied.

"Me too, we've come too far to give up now," Konan said. The Rain Genin nodded to each other with a proud passion.  
The one-minute time limit was up. Shinku stood in front of all the Genin again.

"Well then, let's hear it, raise your hand if you no longer wish to proceed with the Chunin exam."  
Nagato was expecting that no one would raise their hands, considering the trials and hardships that had been experienced to get to this point, he couldn't imagine anyone giving up now. However, to his shock, two hands flew up into the air.

"For those who just raised their hands, please state your name and village," Shinku ordered, "You first."

"Mizumi of the Rain Village," A boy from Funsui's team spoke up. Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan were surprised at this. They all believed that Funsui and his team would have done anything to try and make their lives hell inside this exam. Apparently, that wasn't the case for one of them. Funsui and his other teammate didn't even look at Mizumi, they turned away and disregarded him as if he was a total stranger who just showed up and stood next to them. Their faces twisted into disgust and disappointment. Mizumi, however, was wearing a tired frown upon his sunken, shallow, and pale face. One of his arms was wrapped heavily in bandages and was decorated with tiny red spots. It was most likely blood.  
Shinku flipped pages on his clipboard until he found the page he was after. He made some notes and ticked a few boxes.

"Very well, Mizumi, you are excused. Now you."

"I'm Shi… Shibafu of the Grass Village," Shibafu said quite nervously. His raised hand was shaking in the air.  
Once again Shinku flipped some pages and marked some things down.

"Very well, you too are excused. I take it that's everyone. Speak up now or it will be too late."  
No one else raised their hands.  
"Good, we will start the preliminary rounds now."  
Somewhere in the room was a deep grinding sound that echoed throughout the stone walls.  
"If you could please look up to the screen," Shinku ordered. In the top left corner of the wall that housed the giant hand sign statue, two tiles of stone separated to reveal a screen. Dozens of names flashed by very quickly. Nagato caught his name amongst the flashes once or twice. Eventually, two names were displayed on the screen.  
_Haritsuchi vs Kaiyo.  
_"If your name is displayed on the screen then please stay where you are standing. The rest of you make your way up to the standing areas."  
Every Jonin that was on the ground level vanished in puffs of white smoke, only to reappear a second later on the ramparts of the wall. The only Jonin who remained on the ground was Shinku Yuhi. The Leaf Village sentinels as well as the Hokage also vanished and appeared on the stands above them.  
The Genin -who did not know how to be as fancy as the adults- walked mundanely up the stairs and onto the long-standing platforms to join their sensei.  
Now only three people stood on the ground floor, Shinku, Haritsuchi, and Kaiyo.  
Haritsuchi was from the Stone Village. He had light-brown messy hair. Around both of his thighs were brown-leather straps that held countless needles.  
Yahiko gripped Nagato by the shoulder and pulled him close.

"These Stone Genin were the ones who attacked us when we were separated. Nasty guys, powerful too."  
The other Genin Kaiyo was from the Rain village and was Funsui's remaining team member. He had a pale skin tone. A lot of citizens from the Rain village had pale skin due to the absence of the sun. Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan were no exception.  
Under Kaiyo's right eye was a tattoo of a navy-blue raindrop. He stared fiercely into his opponent's eyes.  
Up on the stands, Nagato, Yahiko and Konan were standing alongside the Grass Genin Kusayari, Koke and Shibafu.  
Nagato turned his head and caught Kusayari's gaze. The Grass Genin walked over to him, the smell of grass and dirt wafted off from the boy's earthly cloak. Without saying anything he stuck his hand out, waiting for a handshake. Nagato stared at him for a second then shook his hand. This must have been Kusayari's way of apologising for what happened inside the forest. Nagato smiled.

"Don't worry about it," Nagato said. Shibafu came up beside his friend. "Hey, Shibafu, long time no see."

"Ah, y-yeah, I guess it has been a while."

"Why did you pull out of the exam?"

Shibafu pulled out his flute from under his cloak and revealed the multiple cracks scarring the bamboo. The tops of some of the tubes were missing as well.

"I-It got damaged near the end of the exam and seeing as my specialty is musical Genjutsu I'm pretty much useless now. I'd be no good in a fight." Shibafu shifted uncomfortably as he spoke. Kusayari put his hand on his friend's shoulder and both returned to their team.  
_He just wants to support his friend; I respect that about him. _Nagato thought as he returned his attention to the ensuing battle.

"Do you need me to repeat any of the rules?" Shinku Yuhi asked. Neither Haritsuchi nor Kaiyo said yes.  
"Very well, we may now start the preliminary round of the Chunin exams. Haritsuchi of the Stone Village, versus Kaiyo of the Rain Village. Begin!"


End file.
